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felassan · 4 years

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Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition concept art & assets from a 2016 talk/presentation by Matt Rhodes, titled “The World of Concept Art” [watch link & source]

It’s an interesting and insightful talk which I recommend watching, especially if you have an interest in concept art and related things like character design and how it fits into the overall game dev process. It’s also interesting to see a bit about how the DA team’s art direction/process has changed over time between games, and hear a bit about how they’ve been doing things going forwards for the next game.

This is Part 1. [Link to Part 2]

(Some notes on the commentary given on the images and in general in the presentation under the cut due to length.)

On image 2: DAII had a fast, hot production period where decisions were made very quickly. The devs knew that the central hub, Kirkwall, had been a center of an old slavery-based empire in the past, and wanted to have indications of this [in its art direction]. There were going to be giant statues that the PC eventually fought - on the right is the design for the statues as they originally were. In the top left, this is all they had for the location [owing to the intensive prod period]. They also had a general idea that they wanted to have tableaus that came to life, shown in the bottom left.

On image 3: Going back to the design of the giant statues, the beautiful golden clockwork version of the design doesn’t really say ‘tool of an ancient slavery-based empire’, so they took the model and tried to come up with something that had more of the kinds of shapes that get into the back of your head and say things like ‘aggressive, hard, simple’.

On image 4: So here they had started doing concepts trying to find some of the right poses, accessories etc that these things would have. One of the hearts of the internal ‘DA art [direction] codex’ is “gray and pointy”; if they give a concept like this to [then] Art Director Matthew Goldman he instinctively wants to go “Yes! Approve!”, and so has to kind of reign himself in a little bit.

On image 5: This is where they ended up getting to and how the concept art turned out in terms of the model, with some negotiation back and forth. This is an example of how their art direction process now tries to tell a story with the art (i.e. it tries to support the story through art aspects of the setting and the environment). Historically, they would have just thrown the French-looking, Baroque clockwork version of the statue into the game and gone with it. They are getting more and more intentional with this sort of thing.

On this image: This was an internal image made for internal discussion. The characters in it aren’t ones that exist or that became other characters, with the exception of the Warden, who kind of became Blackwall. In this image, they were trying to think about visual separation among members of a group at the most basic level (simple graphic design principles, like different shapes and colors). This image is part of trying to solve the design problem of having 4 different characters on-screen in the party at once in their games - as in, players of course need to be able to easily tell who is doing what and where.

A general comment: At BioWare, the concept artists nowadays involve themselves in the character design process much earlier than they used to. Historically, as in earlier games, the writers would write up a bunch of characters and then concept artists would be brought in to draw them. Through negotiation and back-and-forth they would then come up with something. Nowadays though, the concept artists are involved from Day 1. The writers now write down 2 words to describe a character and the artists do sketches based on that. The writers then will write a sentence and the artists will do more drawings based on that. Then it progresses to a paragraph and drawings based on that and so on. In this way it goes back and forth and they build it up so that the visual aspects and the writeup/content of the character are developed completely in tandem, complimentary to one another. This is their goal. They aren’t quite there yet, but this is what they’re trying to strive for in this area.

On image 6: These are Dorian concepts. His initial 2-word writeup was “rockstar mage”. They had different artists take different swings at him. The middle concept is Matt’s. The third concept is by Casper Konefal. Everyone was very excited about it and so it was then taken up to a more final stage (image 7).

On image 8: Casper is one of Matt’s favorite concept artists because he goes in and lovingly details absolutely everything - all the pieces of jewelry etc. Each ring has a story. This attention and level of detail and thought behind it adds authenticity and verisimilitude.

On image 9: In game development, there is an effect on character design that can happen during review meetings. The concept/character artist will know what they need visually from a particular character’s design in order to visually tell the story and to help the character support that. Oftentimes, people who aren’t artists don’t have the language to describe this or realize that’s what’s going on in a character’s design, and instead they just see imperfections in the presented faces. What this can lead to is that unintentionally a group review meeting can slowly trim away all the features of a character that make them interesting or distinct. This is why, for many characters across the game industry, if they were shaved and had their facial decorations etc removed, it would be kind of hard to tell many of them apart, as they have all been subjected to this sort of “council sandblasting” process. Casper figured out an idea to help with this; annotating concept drawings with artistic knowledge that artists know intuitively, as has been done here. Artists know, for instance, that certain shapes and angles can allow for certain assumptions about the character to be made (for example, think about Cassandra’s personality and then consider the angular, straight strong lines that make up her face). Annotating like this and then presenting both versions alongside one another helps these aspects of character design be recognized in the review process, and helps characters remain more distinct.

On image 10: They knew that in DAI there was going to be a character who would be with the PC for the whole game - the humble little hermit, non-intrusive, someone quite closed off who the player wouldn’t know much about. “[quote] And at the very end of the game you’d basically find out that he’s Loki himself, or the embodiment of this ancient god that had been tricking you and basically manipulating you the whole time, characterized by a wolf.” And so Nick Thornborrow hung a wolf’s jaw bone off his neck and it was just there in plain sight the whole game. Because this detail was in the drawings at an early stage, it sparked conversations with the audio department, and the audio department could add touches from their end like having wolves howling when he walked into a new area. They could then get all of these different elements and things that could be hinted at, so that when you play the game a second time it’s like ‘They weren’t even hiding it!! It was there the whole time!!’ He loves that.

A general comment: Any one of BioWare’s 3D modelled characters standing in-game talking or animating probably ends up costing them something in the 40,000 - 60,000 dollar range (they calculated this).

A general comment: For DAI, the concept artists also started to get heavily involved in the storytelling side of things at a deeper level, doing things like quick’n’dirty storyboards for the cinematic designers and spending more time with the writers talking about what emotions they were trying to convey at different points and so forth. Since starting doing this, this has become a built-in part of their process.

A comment in the context of giving advice to up-and-coming and student artists, on the subject of how concepts and ideas are naturally thrown out during the process of iterating on ideas etc: “[quote] Right now, the project that I’m working on that I can’t talk about, I have 3 versions of the story in the garbage, and it’s awesome. Because now I’m working on the fourth with our lead writer and it’s so much better than it would have been otherwise and we’re doing it so much earlier so that we can actually change things up.” Said project could be DA4 or something else. (Please remember these comments were made in November 2016. MEA came out in 2017 and DA4 has been rebooted)

[source]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #solas #cole #cassandra pentaghast #slavery cw #spirit boy #my lady paladin #long post #longpost #da4 tag for the insight into post-DAI era art direction/design process #& for the reference to the project which may or may not be da4 #highlights compiled in case the talk as-is isn't accessible to someone

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kaitycole · 3 years

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dopamine and epinephrine, just don’t mix

Summary: Kuroo thinks back on his relationship with Y/N. How will those memories hold up to reality?

Pairing: Kuroo x fem!reader, Bokuto x fem!reader (platonic)

Word Count: 5351

Warnings: Angst. Toxic behaviors. Cheating allegations. Adult language.

A/N: A special thank you to @twilightwrites for this prompt.

Side note: I know the drinking age in Japan is 20, I realized as I was writing the last paragraph of this that I messed up, so we are just gonna let it slide because my head hurts lol

September – 2013

“Kuroo-san, do you understand what I’ve just explained?” He just nods, the meaning of the words is known, it’s just the weight of them that just hasn’t hit him yet. It not until he’s walking across campus, his feet dragging against the sidewalk, that the weight of his advisor’s words land on his shoulders.

You failed to maintain proper grades to continue not just in this department, but in this university. Your enrollment has been terminated.

Kuroo shakes his head, how exactly would he explain this to his grandmother? She was so proud of him for getting into university in the first place. He really was great at disappointing those he cared for lately.

* * The sidewalks are busier than he’s used to, he was always in class at this time and he ends up brushing against a few people as he maneuvers his way to the nearest convenience store. The dinging of the welcome bell draws him from the jumble of thoughts he was having. The cool air from the refrigerated unit, grabbing several cans of lemon flavored chūhai. It was cheap, didn’t taste all that great, but he didn’t care.

There are three empty cans piled next to his foot, his hand tightens around the fourth one, it caves under his fingertips. The blend of alcohol on an empty stomach has Kuroo on the verge of tipsiness.

He hears a soft laugh and feels himself stiffen when he sees (h/c) hair as his mind blanks. It’s been almost a year since he’s seen her, a flash of the malice words exchanged and the sound the door made as it was slammed crosses his mind.

Suddenly he’s self-conscious of how he looks, quickly running his fingers through his unruly hair (not that that would help) and scrabbles to pick the cans up and cram them into his bag. He doesn’t fully hear the name, but enough to know it wasn’t her, making him feel a bit ridiculous.

Dopamine: hormone and neurotransmitter that's an important part of your brain's reward system; associated with happiness and pleasure.

June – 2010

“Can you tell me where Ko-chan is?”

Kuroo turned to see an unfamiliar face staring back up at him. She tucked a stray piece of her (h/c) hair behind her ear, nervously biting her bottom lip, and Kuroo instantly thought she was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. So much, that instead of answering her, he just stood there, staring.

“Bokuto-san is this way, L/N-san.” Akaashi said as he walked up behind her.

She smiled at Kuroo, apologizing for bothering him before following Akaashi over to where the rowdy ace of Fukurōdani was. Once Bokuto’s eyes fell onto the girl, he ran towards her, wrapping her into a tight hug, thanking her repeatedly for bringing his extra gym bag all the way to the training camp.

Kuroo waited until Bokuto was alone before he made his way over, trying to figure out how to work in his question. “Bokuto, who is that?” Bo looked over to Akaashi who was talking to this mystery girl before looking back at Kuroo with a sloppy grin on his face. “Why? Interested?”

Kuroo felt his head getting fuzzy, like when he held it over the edge of his bed for too long, “I was…uhm…just wondering.”

“That’s Y/N. We grew up together, but in fifth grade she moved away, just recently moved back.”

That explained why Kuroo didn’t know her even though her and Bo came off extremely close.

“She’s single.”

Kuroo felt his face start to burn, embarrassment covering it as he tried to speak, but all that came out were broken parts of a sentence. “Oh, well…I don’t…bother…just…yeah.”

** Y/N was standing in the doorway of the gym, watching as Bokuto hit down each practice set Akaashi sent his way, he truly had gotten even more powerful since they were children. She rubbed her hands against her arms, trying to warm up, she tensed when she felt a slight bit of weight on her shoulders.

She turned around to see a messy raven-haired boy standing behind her, his oversized red jacket draped over her shoulders. “Rooster boy!”

“Huh?” Kuroo raised an eyebrow, unsure of how to really respond.

“Ko-chan told me to call you that.” She smiled up innocently at Kuroo and he felt himself get weak in the knees.

He mumbled something to the effect of ‘horned owl bastard’ underneath his breath which seemed to make her laugh just a little bit. He ran his fingers through his hair, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious about the state of his hair.

She turned back around, eyes wide in awe as Bokuto slammed another ball onto the other side of the court, Kuroo couldn’t help but wonder what it’d be like if she looked at him like that, but blocking wasn’t as flashy as spikes were and he didn’t want to get ahead of himself. He turned around on his heel, getting ready to head back to where the rest of his team is.

“Are you trying to play hard to get?” “Huh?” He looked back at her, she had spun around, a devilish smirk on her smirk.

“You gave me your jacket even though you only have a t-shirt on, but you don’t tell me your name or ask if I want go somewhere to talk.”

“Oh, I thought you wanted to watch Bo play, I…uh…didn’t want to bother you.”

She slipped her arms into his jacket, zipping it up, “nah, I can see Bo play at school.”

“Did you want to go talk somewhere?” “I don’t go places with strangers.” She tilted her head, giving him a knowing look.

He shook his head, “I’m Kuroo Tetsurō, nice to meet you…?” “L/N F/N. Likewise Tetsu-chan!” She grabbed his hand, “c’mon, let’s go!”

He felt the blood rush to his cheeks as his feet moved on their own, following this mystery girl and he already knew that he was gonna have his hands full, not that he really cared.

* * December – 2010

“Y/N?”

The two of them were in Kuroo’s room, something they did often on the weekends, sometimes working on school work, other times just enjoying each other’s company. She’s flipping through a magazine, her chin rested on her palms as she looked over her shoulder at the middle blocker, a smile on her face. Kuroo was leaning against his headboard and couldn’t help but forget what he was about to say.

“Tetsu-chan?”

“Are you a carbon sample?” He smirked when she gave him a puzzled look, “because I want to date you.” Her face lit up as she pushed herself up, sitting up while crossing her legs as she faced Kuroo. “Oh! Oh! Oh! I have one too!” She clapped her hands in excitement, “you look sweeter than 3.14!”

He laughed before he shook his head, “no, Y/N, I’m asking you out.”

“You’re asking me out using a science pun?” His face went completely red, cheek burned as he rubbed the back of his head. “…yeah.”

“You’re such a dork!” She started laughing, falling over to the side as her giggles filled the now empty room. When she finally composed her, wiping the tears that had fallen down her cheeks, she smiled up at him, “but I guess that means you’re my dork.” “That a yes?” Kuroo held his breath, worried that she was about to reject him because looking back on it, it was kinda lame, even for him.

She crawled up to Kuroo side, leaning into it as he wrapped his arm around her waist, “it’s a proton positive?”

* * September – 2013

Kuroo staggers up the stairs, thankful that he only lives on the second floor of his apartment building. He drops his bag near the door while he kicks off his shoes as he makes his way to the closet in his room.

The apartment is pretty bare for someone to be living there. The furniture that’s there is just what’s needed, the bare minimum through the apartment. A bed and night stand in the bedroom, couch and TV in the living room area and the only reason he had a TV stand was because Kenma almost had a heart attack when he saw Kuroo had it sitting on the floor.

Y/N was supposed to decorate it, that had been their deal when the subject of moving in together came up. The plan was to get an apartment between the universities they had planned to attend and she could decorate it however she wanted, all Kuroo cared about was getting to come home to her. But it was obvious that day never happened, they didn’t even make it searching for apartments together before things fell apart and Kuroo picked an apartment closest to his school.

He’s rummaging through the bedroom closet before pulling out an old tin box, the kind that trading cards come in. Wiping off the thin layer of dust that has accumulated on the top, he slowly opens it, a flood of emotions washes over him.

* * March – 2011

“Y/N seems really happy.” Bo said, the three of them had all met up to see a movie that recently released.

Kuroo was happy that his girlfriend and best friend were also close, it made things a lot easier and he didn’t have to worry about them getting along, even if they had technically known each other longer. “I hope she is, I’d do anything for her.”

“What are you two whispering about?” She snuck up behind them, popcorn in hand, placing her chin on Kuroo’s shoulder.

“Guy stuff.”

“Laaame!” She shook her head, walking towards the theatre where their movie was playing, “we’re gonna miss the trailers!”

** “Where to next?” She looked between the boys, eager to keep their night going.

“I should probably head back, I don’t want to worry my grandparents.” Kuroo glanced at the time on his phone, he knew the movie might run late but he didn’t think they’d be out this late. He felt bad as he watched her face drop, clearly not the answer she was expecting.

“Yeah, it is getting a bit late.” Bokuto agreed with a slight shrug.

Y/N dragged her feet along the sidewalk, her shoulder dropped which caused both boys to share a look.

“Is this about what we talked about earlier?” Bokuto asked, pulling her into a side hug.

Kuroo looked between them, curiosity filling him as he tries to think if she told him anything that was bothering her, but he can’t. “What did you two talk about?” She shook her head, “it’s nothing.” She looked up at him, giving him a small straight smile.

Part of him wanted to ask her again, to get her to open up and talk to him about it because it was bothering her then it bothers him, but he didn’t. He tried to find comfort in the fact that at least she could tell Bo about it, at least she had someone, but it still hurt that that someone wasn’t him.

* * May – 2011

It had bothered Kuroo for weeks now that it seemed Y/N was confiding more and more into Bokuto that she was him. He was her boyfriend, he was the one she should be going to, right? Then why was she continuously going to their friend?

His irritation started to splinter into other aspects of his life, tests that he should’ve passed he didn’t, blocks he should’ve made he missed, but the boiling point came when Fukurōdani played Nekoma and she came decked out in Fukurōdani colors, cheerfully talking to Bo and his team. He knew it shouldn’t bug him like it was, she attended that school, but what still pissed him off were the comments he heard as they walked by the team.

Comments from other team members and what seemed like potential classmates of theirs repeatedly saying different variations of how cute her and Bo looked together, what a great couple they’d make and the way that she would hang onto Bo’s side.

The game was long, Kuroo spend half the game lost in his anger and the other half moving on auto-pilot as his body seemed to move on its own. Somehow Nekoma ended up winning, but that didn’t change the way he felt as he practically stormed off the court towards the locker room. He understood how important Bo was to her, that they were best friends and had been for longer than he knew either of them, but that didn’t alleviate the anger that radiated off of his shoulders nor did it stop him from slamming the doors he walked through.

“Tetsu-chan!”

He didn’t stop, just continued to walk down the hallway and toward the main entrance, acting as though he’s the only one there.

“Tetsu-chan!” She reached out, pulling his duffle bag’s strap back towards her.

He refused to turn around, having a feeling that he’d lash out and he didn’t want to do that. He needed space, time to cool down, he didn’t want to give her the ultimatum of him or Bo and he had a feeling if he opened his mouth, that’s what he’d say.

She looked at his back, unsure of why he was so upset, his team had just won, shouldn’t he be more excited? “For someone who just won, you’re acting like emo Bo.”

Kuroo’s eye twitched, just hearing her compare him to Bo so effortlessly was painful and caused his thoughts to spiral. Did she want to be with him? Would she rather be with Bo? He clenched his fist, hating the way he felt and hating himself more for feeling that way. He hated the ugly jealousy that wrapped around his chest, weaving around his lung, making it harder to breathe as it tightened. He yanked his bag strap away from her, leaving her standing there as he stormed out.

** A few weeks went by and communication between Kuroo and Y/N was awkward and basic, simple “hello’s” and “yeah, you?” filled most of their exchanges. It all came down to Bo inviting both of them over to his place and essentially locking them in his room, forcing them to talk to each other.

“Tetsu-chan.” She bit down on her lip, tears filled her eyes, the reality of how distant they had grown weighed down the atmosphere, “are we breaking up?” “What?” His head snapped up, finally looking her. He didn’t want to break-up, he wasn’t even mad anymore, he just didn’t know how to get back to where they were. It felt weird to just try to just back in as if nothing had ever happened.

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself as if creating a wall between them, an attempt to brace herself from the pain that seemed to be coming. She tried her hardest to keep her lip from quivering. “’Cause this is a very shitty way of doing that. You could’ve just called.”

He wasn’t sure what was going on, she didn’t look like she wanted to break up, but she sounded like she was ready for one. What sense did that make? The room almost felt hostile, “so I look like the guy that’d break up over the phone, is that what you think of me?” “Did I say that? No. But it’d be better than dumping me in Bo’s room!”

“I didn’t say I wanted to break up!”

“Then why have you been avoiding me?”

“You hurt my feelings!” Kuroo voice raised a bit louder than it had been, both of them pausing in their spot. The tension immediately disappeared and she slowly walked up to him, an adorable pout on her face.

She threw her arms around him, sobbing into his chest, “I’m so sorry!” “It’s fine, it’s stupid anyways.” He rubbed circles on her back, pulling her in closer to him.

She protested, claiming anything that bothered him couldn’t be stupid and demanded that he tell her and he did. That he knew it was rather silly to be jealous of her supporting her school, but it made him wonder if she was embarrassed to say she was with him. That he knew it was important for her to have friends and he was glad Bo was one, but she wanted her to see him as someone she could go to in the same she could to Bo because as lame as it sounded, he didn’t like feeling like the odd man out.

She reassured him that it was nothing like that and told him that she saw where he was coming from. She told him that if the roles had been reversed, she would’ve definitely felt the same way that he had and that they both needed to work on their communication skills because they both agreed neither of them wanted what they had to end.

They walked out of the room together, holding hands and Bo looked excited to see they worked things out, wrapping them both in a huge hug. Kuroo thought he felt confident in what she said to him, but then he saw how she seemed to just naturally gravitate towards Bo even when he was there and that sinking feeling he had weeks ago at their game came back, this time plowing into him like a wrecking ball.

* * September – 2013

Kuroo accidentally kicks the box as he staggers to stand up, the memories proving to be a bit too much for him. But something in him made him want to see the task through, to see everything that he was holding on to, but to do that he needed alcohol.

His phone starts to vibrate in his pocket, he takes it out immediately pressing the button on the side to silence it then presses it again to send it to voice mail. Kuroo knows who it is, it’s the only person who would be calling him: Kenma.

He opens the fridge, pulling out what few cans of beer he has before shuffling back to his room, flopping down in the stop that’s still warm from him sitting there just moments ago. He puts his phone on floor near him, glancing at the screen as it lights up from a text notification.

Kenma: Missed Call (4) Text Message (15)

Technically he had no reason to avoid his best friend, but he didn’t feel like he deserved Kenma’s kindness because all he had done lately was mess things up. He didn’t want Kenma to tell him everyone messes up and he can fix things since he knew that it was too late to do any of that now.

He pulls out a small pile of printed photographs, some printed out on the mini polaroid paper from the camera she wanted for her birthday. She was his first serious relationship, between school and volleyball he never really gave dating much thought, but it was different with her. She kept him on his toes, made him want to be better, he really could see a future with her, but he screwed it up and now all he had were these pictures.

Pictures that ranged from dates to study sessions, from volleyball games to random adventures through Tokyo. Looking at them made him wonder if she kept the matching ones? Did she have a box too?

A bit of beer splatters when he cracks open the tab and he frantically wiped the picture across his thigh, drying it but smearing the liquid across the photo. He wanted to believe that he tried hard enough to make things work, that he gave it his all, but when he thought back to that night, her words told him differently.

Epinephrine: surges at panic/emergency; provokes stress response— brings out arousal of extreme emotions like fear and anger.

January— 2012

“It’s really not that big of a deal!” She said for the fourth time within the last five minutes, but Kuroo wasn’t listening.

“It is!” He shook his head, pacing her bedroom, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to control what he said if he sat down, he needed to walk this anger out of him.

“He was the first person I saw, Tetsu.” She really didn’t mean anything by telling Bokuto she had been accepted into her top two choices for college, he literally happened to be the first person she saw after getting the news. They’d been dating for two years and he still got jealous when it came to Bo and she wasn’t sure why.

“You just don’t get it.” He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to even out his breathing, he really didn’t want to fight with her.

“You’re right, I don’t. I don’t get why my boyfriend gets so upset when I tell my best friend things.”

“Because you told him first! I should know first!”

She snorted, “this is stupid. I mean honestly you sound like a child.”

“A child, nice.” He grabbed his jacket from her desk chair, shoving passed her as he walked down the hall before slipping on his shoes and going right out the front door.

She followed him, yelling at him to stop, yanking on his arm when she finally catches up. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t say anything at first, just stood there as she repeatedly apologized, tightly wrapping her arms around his torso.

“I don’t know why I get so jealous.” He sounded defeated and he was, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t place why he felt so threatened by Bo. Maybe it was because he knew her longer, knew parts of her that he didn’t or maybe it’s because deep down he just didn’t feel like he deserved her.

“I know.” She buried her face into his chest, still hugging him. She believed that he didn’t know why he felt that way, but she was still tired of dealing with it, regardless of how much she loved him.

* * April – 2012

It was the weird time between graduation and university getting ready to start, Y/N was over at Kuroo’s, his room now filled with boxes. Things didn’t bounce back to normal the way it did before when she thought they were breaking up, after their latest fight things were kinda awkward. They still hung out, but it was mostly just them sitting in the same room both engaged in something alone.

Kuroo looked over when he heard her giggle, raising an eyebrow before humming.

“Yukie sent the group chat some pictures from graduation.” She handed her phone to him, scooting a bit closer so they could look together.

Most of them were harmless, to be fair they were all harmless, but Kuroo started to question them as they went through them. There were ones of Y/N with Yukie and Kaori and some with various team members. Then they got to ones with Bo and both of them stiffened, neither had mentioned him unless they had to since their last fight. There were ones with Bo hanging on an unamused looking Akaashi, but the one that Kuroo hated was one of Bo next to Y/N, his hand “too low” on her hip for his liking.

He pushed himself off his bed, trying to calm down, but he knew this time he wouldn’t be able to.

“Tetsu, it was just a picture.”

He made an annoyed sound, something between a scoff and a laugh, as he shook his head. “He didn’t have to put his hand on your hip like that.”

She rolled her eyes, “it’s just a stupid pose. Everyone does it!” She flipped through the pictures, zooming in on Yukie’s arm that was wrapped around her waist, “see! Look! Her arm is around me, that make you mad too?” “It’d be different if you weren’t practically begging Bo to fuck you!”

The words hung heavy between them, for Kuroo it was a weight of his shoulders to get the words out but for Y/N, it knocked the wind out of her lungs. They were supposed to look at apartments today, find one to live in together while going to college, but a fight like this wasn’t in the plans. At least not for her, she was hoping that they could mend things and start over since they’d be moving away from Bo.

“W-w-what?” Her face was scrunched up in disbelief, the words still not being fully processed.

“I mean the way you flaunt yourself in front of him in that skirt!”

“Skirt?” Her face went deadpan, “you mean my fucking school uniform?”

28 months, they’d been together for over two years and she couldn’t he said that to her, couldn’t believe that he felt that way. Tears started to fill her eyes, for months she walked on pins and needles, carefully edited her words around him and now she had to hear the person she loved the most say the worse kind of words to her.

“You know what I mean! Don’t twist my words!”

“I’m not and I can’t believe you!” She wiped the tears from her face aggressively, “I have done nothing to cause you to feel this way!”

“I’m just making it up? It’s just in my head?” “YES! Bo is our best friend. Friends, that’s all we have ever been!” She started to look around the room, trying to find the sweatshirt she brought with her, she couldn’t have this fight again.

“Friends don’t act like you two do.”

“Boyfriends don’t act like you do!” She took three steps towards Kuroo to grab her sweatshirt before she turned and walked towards his door. She hesitated, thinking Kuroo would call out to her, but he doesn’t, instead he just let her leave.

* * July – 2012

They didn’t get a shared apartment like they had planned to. Kuroo stayed in Tokyo while YN moved to Kyoto, choosing a completely different university than she originally intended. For most of their first semester in university they barely spoke at all, neither really making it a point to reach out. Ironically, if it wasn’t Bokuto they wouldn’t have known how the other was doing, how the other was dealing with the upgrade from high school to college.

Then Bokuto mentioned a Fukurōdani vs Nekoma game, invited both of them and both eagerly accepted. Which lead to a very awkward game, each sitting on the opposite side of Bokuto, who was far too busy cheering on his old team to notice. Bokuto ran off after the game, Akaashi had called, leaving the two to awkwardly walk home.

They get close to her house, both lingering on the sidewalk, kicking imaginary rocks to act as if they had something keeping them outside.

“Y/N, I’m –“

“I think we should break up.”

“Y/N, I –”

“No. I don’t want to hear any excuses anymore. I tried so hard to make this work, but what you said to me hurt Kuroo, it really hurt.”

Kuroo. When was the last time she called him that?

“I never did anything to make you think those things, I wouldn’t do that. I really did love you, but I can’t keep doing this. It’s not healthy.”

* * September – 2013

It had been over a year and he stilled kicked himself for not saying anything to her that night, for letting her walk away without even trying to hold onto their relationship. But that night he discovered that everything he thought about them was a lie. He thought that he had been trying to keep them together, that he had been trying his hardest to be a good boyfriend, but he was the one who tore them apart. He was the one who got it in his head that she was acting a way that he knew she wasn’t, he knew that Bo was just her friend and what made it even worse was after their break-up, Bo and Akaashi announced their relationship.

Not only did he lose his girlfriend, the only girl he’d ever loved, but she eventually told Akaashi what happened and when Bo found out, he was livid. Even Akaashi hadn’t seem Bo as mad as he was when he called and told off Kuroo for ever thinking that about him and Y/N. Maybe all of this was what he deserved, he had been truly awful as a boyfriend and a friend, but even with that awareness, he still missed her. Still wanted her back, wanted to truly be able to fix things with her because he knew he could be better given one more chance.

* * October – 2013

Being back at home isn’t as bad as Kuroo built it up in his head to be. His grandparents weren’t thrilled that he wasn’t going to finish up this semester, but he promised them after some time, after he could clear his head, he would go back.

He picked up a part-time job at a convenient shop, just needing something to force him out of his thoughts because somehow being back at home was even worse than being alone in his apartment. Even though he knew she was hours away, it didn’t stop him from almost breaking his neck to see if every girl passing with (h/c) was her. He hadn’t seen her up close since their breakup, so he didn’t know if she had long, short, buzzed hair, hell he didn’t even know if she had colored it differently.

“You didn’t forget my (favorite flavor) tea, did you?”

Kuroo stops in the middle of ringing up a customer at the sound of a familiar voice. Over the last year and a half, he swore he had heard it several times, but this time he is positive that it’s her. He looks up just in time to see her smiling at someone that the aisle is preventing him from seeing and he feels his heart thump into his chest.

He wants to step away from the register, to tell them to just give him a moment, that’s all he needs with her to try to get her to just hear him out, but there’s a pretty long line and she disappears deeper into the store.

“Kuroo?”

He looks up from ringing up the few items that were placed on the counter and it was her. Her in person, not in his dreams or random memories that flooded his mind when was alone. He wanted to ask her to wait for him, to give him just a few minutes to talk to him, but the person next to her wrapped his arm around her and his heart sank.

“Are you on break from school?” She tilts her head to the side.

“Just thought I’d take some time off, clear my head.” He told them the total price, the mystery man handing him the amount. “What about you?” She clears her throat, shifting a bit awkwardly which isn’t missed on either man. “Bo invited us to celebrate him signing to a pro team.” “Ah. So this is…” The man quickly introduces himself, Kuroo doesn’t bother to catch his name, but the title he gives himself sticks in his mind: boyfriend. He wants to be mad, how could she just move on like that? How could she just forget everything they had and start over with this…guy?

“We should get going, Y/N.”

“It was nice seeing you.” She gives him a small polite smile, taking the man’s hand as they walked out of the store. But she pauses before going through the door and for a brief moment Kuroo holds his breath, hoping she’ll tell him she wants to talk. She doesn’t, instead she shakes her head with a small laugh and follows her boyfriend outside.

That’s the moment Kuroo realizes that he no longer has a place in her life to go back to, that no matter how hard and tightly he holds onto the memories they made, he would never get her back. And that realization shook Kuroo to his core.

Likes, comments and reblogs are always appreciated.

Interested in more? --> Masterlist

#haikyuu!!#hq kuroo #kuroo tetsurō #kuroo x reader #kuroo x female reader #kuroo angst #hq angst #tw angst #tw toxic behavior #tw cheating allegations #tw mentions of cheating #tw adult language #tw cussing #tw: anger #kuroo tetsuro x reader #platonic bokuto x reader #hq bokuto x reader #bokuto x reader are friends

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writing-in-april · 3 years

Text

Unintentionally Unrequited

Lesley Smith-Juniment x Gender Neutral Reader

Summary: Reader tries to hold back their love for Lesley while he’s still reeling from his broken engagement.

A/N: Hey Heyyy!!!! This is my first fic for Lesley guys!!! It’s also my twenty-fourth fic for my 30 fics in 30 days for April! It’s based on this request- I had a lot of fun with it!!! (Hope I got his character right 🤞) Lol low key I might have been projecting my love of the cold in the first paragraph- im sorry to all my warm weather lovers!!! 😂 Feel free to leave an ask here (I promise I don’t bite, I swear) Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!

Warnings: I swear three times- that’s it 🥰

Main Masterlist Word Count: 1.5k

The sun beat down hard on me, making my eyes squint and my skin hotter than I would have liked. Normally I would have been wallowing in misery as I thrived in the cold, even though I lived in Texas. That’s where my job was and that’s where Lesley was, so I swallowed up my complaints, especially now.

Lesley was grabbing our drinks, which was more of a challenge than I expected. I watched him stumble about a million times in his closed toed Birkenstocks he still insisted on wearing, kicking up streams of sand while the concession worker snickered. Instead of laughing like most I smiled brightly, finding it incredibly endearing rather than using it as a reason to make fun of him. I may have not found his closed toed Birkenstocks very fashionable, but he loved them, and I loved him.

I could only say that in my head though, he was still unequivocally in love with Summer- even though she had stomped on his heart. He had thought he found love and watched it cruelly be ripped away from him when Summer broke off their engagement. Normally with whirlwind engagements it was expected that they wouldn’t last. But, with Lesley and Summer I had really thought that they would stand the test of time. I loved him too much to break the fragile happiness he had, though it turns out someone was going to do it for me anyway.

Lesley was still holding a torch for her, I could tell by the way he got a little melancholic sometimes when he talked to me. I did my best to get his mind off of it, that’s why we were here, on this unremarkable beach.

I was glad I at least did something good when I whisked him away to the beach for a while so he wouldn’t have to see Summer or be reminded of her. I knew that eventually we’d have to go back, but it was nice to pretend in this utopia I had crafted for us for the time being, even if the beach was slightly shitty. And, I meant that literally; there was tons of uncleared bird poop everywhere. We had to find a specific spot that was somewhat secluded to find a spot not covered in it.

When he came back with our drinks, it was a little more graceful than the first time, though the worker still laughed when his back was turned, which earned him a glare from me. As we sipped on our slushies while sitting on a rickety bench by the beach, I contemplated everything that had happened in recent months. I had been by his side through it all, mostly with my eyes blown wide at how ridiculous it all was.

Six months ago we had been very different people, sure we had the same personalities and acted relatively the same. But, our experiences over the last months have changed us into different people. I still knew Lesley, better than anyone, and certainly better than Summer claimed.

It was getting too difficult to keep trapped up inside anymore, each day I chose to say nothing made it even more painful. I sucked on my staw, trying to keep it bottled up, keeping it down by the colorful ice that tasted artificially sweet. It felt like I was choking on the love, it wanted to spill out and compel me to confess even though I didn’t want to.

Before I even knew what I was saying it started to tumble out, bubbling up to the surface getting ready to explode any friendship Lesley and I had,

“I know you never will feel the same way, but I have to tell you this,” He cocked his head to the side in question, not expecting what was about to come out of my mouth next, “I love you.”

His mind had obviously short circuited going by the look on his face, jaw dropped open, eyes blown wide, and fingers shaking in shock. It took him a minute to process, frozen in the same place trying to understand what I had just said.

Not long ago he had made the same confession to someone that ultimately ended up leaving him heartbroken. I was afraid I was due for my own dose of unrequited love.

His body must have caught up with his mind as he stood up, knocking over his red colored slushy in the process, staining the sand. He was rubbing the front of his khaki shorts in panic, I grabbed them without thinking; he could hate me now and never want to touch me again.

However, he did not pull away from me, in fact he gripped my hands in a tighter hold while he also squeezed his eyes shut a few times. I opened my mouth to say something, but found myself completely choked up at Lesley’s own admission, “I love you too.”

“I thought you still loved Summer?” Tears were falling down my face, but each drop was quickly brushed to the side by my hands, not wanting to have Lesley see me cry. I had thought Summer had meant the world to him, the way he looked at her made me think that he’d never look at me the same way. I had never even thought to turn around and see if he was looking at me in the first place.

“No, I don’t she was- Never mind it doesn’t even matter. All that matters is that I love you- it’s always been you. You’re the only person who really knows me, really sees me for me.” His hands enveloped my cheeks with cold from him holding the slushy cup while he said his own confession, much more wordy than my own. With his confession heat began to bloom in my cheeks, warming up his cold hands. They were warming up from sheer embarrassment rather than the sun that was still beating down on us overhead. It seemed so silly now, to keep my love for him secret while he walked into a romance his heart wasn’t fully in.

“I’m sorry.” I meekly whispered, dipping my head down in shame.

“Why are you sorry?”

“Because I didn’t tell you…” He then tipped my head up to look at him with confidence I didn’t often see from him.

“You told me now and- that’s all that matters.” Bridging the gap that had slowly been decreasing between the two of us, surprisingly he initiated the kiss.

His lips tasted like the cherry slushy he had been drinking, mixed with the blue raspberry one I had been downing. It was a sugary sweet combo almost sickly, but all I wanted was more. I had deprived myself of the sugar I had been pining for, for so long, I didn’t care if it was somewhat overwhelming to my taste buds.

We had both been idiots, colossal idiots for not getting the nerve to open our mouths and speak up to one another. Though maybe I was the bigger idiot because I had watched him pretend to love someone else, not noticing all the looks he had probably thrown my way. I had been so convinced that he would never love me back that I let the sweetness of him be used by someone else, even though it was always meant for me. Running my fingers through his hair I pulled him even closer to me, touching him without pause or thought of the repercussions. It felt good to be free, like I was flying high up above the clouds unrestricted by my own self doubting thoughts that always tried to sabotage me.

Lesley had been kissing me back with the same amount of force as I was, not a shred of hesitation in sight as he sucked on my bottom lip. Unfortunately I had to let him go when I noticed the concession’s vendor eyeing the two of us while eating a bag of peanuts. Glaring hard again at the man I then refocused onto Lesley, and I never wanted to stop looking. He seemed disappointed at first when we seperated; he had tried to chase my lips as if that would be his first and only taste. I gave him a quick kiss on the tip of his button nose, another taste of the affection he’d be treated to as long as he’d let me give it to him. Speaking softly I then expanded on my confession from earlier, “I promise there’ll be more where that came from- I love you and I never want to let you go.”

He looked down at our intertwined fingers still with shock, he brought them up to his lips, giving his own affection to the tops of my hands with two sweet pecks. “I love you too.” He then mumbled into our palms, giving them one last peck before releasing them.

Tugging his hands I then walked backwards towards our shitty hotel rooms that matched the shitty beach, though I wouldn’t be separating from him once we reached mine. “Come on let’s go.” I said with another tug before breaking out into a run with him right behind, ready to start our adventure of requited love.

Ask Me Anything

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#lesley smith juniment #hot air #lesley smith juniment x reader #matthew gray gubler x reader #mgg x reader #mgg #matthew gray gubler fluff #lesley juniment smith #matthew gray gubler #mgg fluff #hot air mgg #hot air movie

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honeypirate · 3 years

Text

Just In Case part two

Part one here

The awakening

(Lol that’s kinda dramatic)

Bakugou x fem reader married pro hero au

The first paragraph is kind of a spoiler for season five ep one.

Anyway!! I hope you like this!! I hate angst with not a good ending so I had to make it a good ending with family fluff.

(You went to the hospital as a hero so he uses your hero name at the receptionist)

Kirishima feels like he’s in school again as he races his car from the office down to the hospital except this time Bakugou was in the passenger seat instead of on the hood.

“Can you go any faster? Fuck” bakugou grumbled and kiri laughed once “I’m going seventy in a 45 I think I’m at the limit. Plus we’re here” before he can even stop the car, Bakugou is slamming the door and running. “Lightseeker?” He’s asking the receptionist who seems a little star struck “come on!” He shouts and slaps the counter making her jump. “DynaMight” recovery girl says from the doorway and he’s never moved this fast before in his life.

“What happened? They told me she was gone” his voice is angry, he’s pissed. He’s never been this god damn angry before in his life. They said she was dead but she’s alive! These goddamn doctors don’t know shit apparently.

“We don’t know. She was dead. She was gone. They were about to take her to the morgue but her body lit up with electricity and then she was breathing and alive and screaming for you. We just got out of surgery and she should still be under anesthesia until the morning.”

(Flashback)

The first responders get there and bakugou checks out, they order him to move rubble or move other things and he helps how he can moving immediately. They free your body, one first responder had her hands on your face the whole time already healing what she could and pulling your body back together as the heavy piece of building was levitated away.

He followed behind them and sat by you in the ambulance, quiet and in shock as he numbly watched them work over you. He watched, like an out of body experience, as you flatlined. Watched as they tried to resuscitate you. Watched as the woman’s hands fell from your body and watched as her mouth moved calling the time of death.

He stared at your face the rest of the ride, ingraining your face in his memory. Trying to grasp the fact that he will never see you smile again, never hear your voice, never experience parenthood with you.

That’s what breaks him. Thinking of the half painted pastel green room, flashing back to finding you laying in the middle of the room unsure of the color again (the fourth color you’ve painted it) he laid beside you and you talked about colors and baby names for hours looking around the small room and imagining your future.

He had quiet tears going down his cheeks and he’s only semi aware of the woman handing him a card to the hospital morgue and their grief therapist before the police chief is there wanting a statement.

(Back to present)

He looks through the room window, watching you breathe with the help of a breathing tube. Your right arm was in a cast and your chest was bandaged under your hospital gown.

He was scared, terrified the moment he walks through that door he’d wake up and this would be a dream, you’d be gone.

Recovery girl has gone and he’s by himself but he still can’t go in there. “Hey man” Kirishima says softly “what happened?”

“She came back. They don’t know how”

Kirishima takes in Bakugous state, noticing the worry in his eyes and how he seems frozen to his spot. He decides to take the lead. “Hey y/n” Kirishima says gently as he walks into the room, Bakugou feels panic and follows him quickly.

“I’m glad you’re back. I don’t know how I could have lived without your caramel cake and your sense of humor. No one can put Bakugou here in his place like you could. He’d be insufferable without you so truly from the bottom of my heart, thank you”

Bakugou glares at him, but is grateful for him taking the lead and helping him through his fear.

“Hey pretty girl” Bakugou says and takes your hand, Kirishima smiles softly and pats his shoulder as he leaves the room.

“You scared the fuck outta me” he said, tears filling his eyes again as he sits in the chair beside the bed. “Never do that again” his voice cracks and he drops his head to the bed next to your left hand which he has clasped between his. Hot tears falling to the crappy hospital blanket that scratches his face. He was so broken, so terribly ripped to shreds when he thought you were dead. And to have himself be ripped to shreds and then tell him you’re alive? Fuck it hurt. He cried harder than he ever had from the pain of losing you to get you back, he didn’t know how to handle the whiplash of emotion.

At some point he must have fallen asleep because he woke up to the sensation of you running your fingers through his hair. His head shot up and the moment he’s looking into your eyes he’s crying again, his eyebrows knit as tears spill from his eyes “you dumbass” he mutters with a thick tongue and you chuckle “don’t cry sweetheart” you say softly and brush his tears away with your left hand, not moving more than that. “I’m right here” you whisper, your eyes filling with tears.

He stands and leans over, pressing his forehead into yours. “Please” he whispers. Not really sure what he’s asking, just knowing he needs you to be with him longer. “I’m here. I’m with you. Right here” you say and press your lips to his in a little peck causing his breath to hitch.

When he relaxes and sits back down, his hand never leaving yours, you tell him your experience.

“I woke up a little while ago as the doctors removed my breathing tube and I made them be quiet so they wouldn’t wake you” he chuckles gently, everything still feeling so fragile, “always thinking of me” he says and reaches out, brushing your cheek softly and you lean into his touch

“I remember what happened” you whisper and he raises his eyebrows “when you died?” He asks in a whisper and you nod “do you wanna talk about it?” He asks gently and you sigh softly

“I was floating in the darkness. I was wondering where you were. I wanted you. All of my favorite memories of you and I together filled that darkness. I saw what our future will be like” you close your eyes as tears start to fall “it was so beautiful. Our family” he feels tears prick his eyes as you talk and his hand tightens around yours.

You look into his eyes and smile “I don’t know if it was real. But she looked just like you, Katsuki. Crazy blonde hair and she had a quirk where one hand is explosions and the other was electricity. She was funny and sweet and she had my eyes” he smiles softly imagining the child “she ran to me and placed her palm against my chest and used her electricity and then I was here”

He lays his cheek against your thigh facing you and closes his eyes “I don’t know if it’s real or just a dream” he says softly “but I’m grateful to whoever it was who gave you back to me”

(Skippy skip)

He’s been so much more open with his feelings after that day and it’s been amazing. You two had gone to couples therapy just to help guide you both through that process and it brought you both closer together.

Healing was bitch. Physical therapy was a bigger bitch. But Bakugou was there every step of the way in your recovery. You’ve never seen him more attentive since you were dating. He got home from his patrol and wrapped his arms around your middle as you cooked dinner “I missed you today. The office is so empty without you” he mumbles against your neck and you smile, reaching up and cupping his cheek “I’ll be back soon” you say and turn in his arms “buuut maybe not that soon” you say with a knowing smirk and he raises his eyebrows “what do you mean?” You pull the stick out of your pocket and hand it to him

He’s quiet for a moment, looking down at the capped pregnancy test in his palm and at the pink line that confirmed his dreams “is this..” he looks up to you and you see the tears in his eyes “we’re gonna have a baby, Katsuki”

(Skippy skip)

He opens the room to the doctors office panting “sorry 'm late” he says as he takes his spot next to you in the bed, your hand taking his and squeezing it. “Right on time” excitement fills your voice and he kisses the top of your head. “I see the feet here” the doctor points out and types into the computer “and here’s the hands… and here is the little face” your eyes are hooked on the screen, so enamored by seeing your little one in your tummy. You hear a sniff and look up to see bakugou crying and it makes your heart swell “and here it is..” she turns to you “do you wanna know the sex?” You and bakugou both say yes at the same time and she laughs “it’s a girl”

(Skippy skip)

You hear an explosion in your house and panic, running to check on your daughter. You bust through her door and find her holding a busted and charred plastic dinosaur. “Sweetie what happened?” You kneel in front of her and she laughs “he was going to eat my Barbie and I had to save her”

Later that evening when Bakugou is sitting down with her explaining her quirk and his, that’s when the electricity manifested and she shot a bolt at your tv making it explode. You stared for a moment then looked at Bakugou both busting up laughing before helping her with ways to control it.

Later that night

“It’s real” you say as you cuddle into his side “it’s her” he hums and holds you close “she brought me back” he fights back tears “my precious girls” he says softly.

#bakugou x you #bakugou x y/n #bakugou katsuki fanfiction #bakugou x reader #bnha bakugou #bakugou katsuki #bakugou fluff #bakugou fanfiction

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phantasyreign · 3 years

Text

Tutorial: Simple Carousel without using <input>

Hello everyone!

I always wanted to create a Carousel-based theme, upon researching, I found yeoli-thm‘s tutorial (link is at the demo) but I had a difficulty in understanding it as I am not a huge fan of <input>. Luckily, I managed to create a simpler version of the carousel without using <input>.

Here's the result:

Preview

By having this result, you can create your very own pages and all-in-one themes! The base code will be provided in the demo but if you want to learn how to create this from scratch, please do read this till the end!

IMPORTANT!:

Please like and/or reblog this post if you like this tutorial. If you intend of using this code as a based code, you are required to mention me in your theme post.

This tutorial consists of four aspects:

General styling

Basic Container

Navigation

Carousel

The concept of creating a carousel derives from my smooth scrolling tutorial. If you haven’t check that out, I highly recommend for you check it out.

General Styling

1. Firstly, you need to add the basic code for your carousel. You can retrieve it from this site.

2. Add the universal selector at the style/CSS area:

/*GENERAL STYLING*/ *{ margin:0; box-sizing: border-box; scroll-behavior: smooth; }

It is pertinent to add scroll-behavior:smooth. This is to create a smooth scrolling effect.

3. Once you're done with it, you can create a basic styling for the body, fonts, etc at the style/css area. In my demo, I made a basic styling of the body, paragraph, title, and scrollbar. Example can be seen as follow:

/*BODY AND FONTS*/ body{ background: rgb(248,248,255); background-image: linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(248,248,255,1) 0%, rgba(223,223,255,1) 50%); font-family:geo sans light; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; } @font-face { font-family: geo sans light; src: url(https://static.tumblr.com/v6akjgz/MQbqf9ocl/geosanslight.ttf); } p{ margin-bottom:2rem; } h1{ font-family:vintage fair; text-align:center; color:#1f1b1b; text-shadow:-1px 0 black; font-weight:300; margin-bottom:1rem; line-height:1.15; } @font-face { font-family:vintage fair; src: url(https://static.tumblr.com/v6akjgz/SNhqfaujo/vintage_fair.ttf); } /*SCROLLBAR*/ ::-webkit-scrollbar { width: 18px; height: 18px; } ::-webkit-scrollbar-track { border: 8px solid #fff; background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.05); } ::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { background-color: #acacff; border: 8px solid #fff; }

NOTE!: There's no need for you to copy and paste the above code. You can always edit it or create other designs that you like to add.

Basic Container

A basic container is a place where you'll be adding the carousel. You can design it however you want in the style/CSS area but at the most basic, you can style it this way:

/*BASIC CONTAINER*/ .content{ /*Basic*/ width: 50%; height: 60%; /*Position*/ position: fixed; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /*Important*/ overflow: hidden; /*Design*/ background-color:lightblue; border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(58, 2, 58); }

Please do take note that this is one of the many ways of creating the basic container. If you know your ways in CSS, you can style it however you want!

IMPORTANT: It is very important for you to add overflow:hidden;. Without this, it will cause the scrollbar to appear and make it less pleasing to see.

For the HTML area, add the following code:

<div class="content">  </div>

By now, if you click [Update Preview] and [Save], you will now see the container on your page.

Navigation

Navigation is the place where all the links to the section will be wrapped in.

1. Add the code below /body.

<div class="contentlink"> <ul> <li><a href="#partone">First</a> <li><a href="#parttwo">Second</a></li> <li><a href="#partthree">Third</a></li> <li><a href="#partfour">Fourth</a></li> </ul> </div>

2. After that, you are required to style it at the CSS/style are (preferably below the content). The most basic ways to do it is by doing it this way:

/*NAVIGATION*/ .contentlink{ width:5rem; height:10rem; position:fixed; top:30%; right:10%; } .contentlink ul{ list-style-type: none; padding:0; } .contentlink li{ background-color:ghostwhite; border:1px solid lightblue; border-radius: 5px; display: block; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding:1rem; text-align: center; } .contentlink li a{ text-decoration: none; color:rgb(24, 91, 136); transition: 0.25s ease-in; } .contentlink li a:hover{ color: midnightblue; font-weight: 600; transition: 0.25s ease-out; }

So let me explain one-by-one what's the function of each selector:

.contentlink: This is the wrapper for all the navigation links for the carousel.

.contentlink ul: This is the wrapper for the list. Since we don't want any bullets nor padding/indents, it is essential for us to set the list-style-type and padding to none and 0 respectively.

.contentlink li a & .contentlink li a:hover: These are essential to customize the link.

Take Note!

If you are the kind of person who focuses on accessibility, this type of code may not suit your needs. So, you may need to modify both the HTML and CSS code.

Again, this is one of the many ways of styling the navigation section. If you know your ways in CSS and HTML, you can always modify it however you like.

The number of navigation sections does not necessarily be four. It can be two or even six if you like! So, add/remove the link that suits your need.

If you intend to create an effect where whenever you click the section, it will show an indication to it, I would say that it may not be possible to do so as it requires input.

By now, you will see that everything is starting to come up to life. But if you click the button, you'll see that it won't move to another section. This is because we have yet to create the content section.

Carousel

This is where the content of each section lies. Firstly, you need to add the code inside the the div class="content" :

<div class="default" id="partone">  </div> <div class="default" id="parttwo">  </div> <div class="default" id="partthree">  </div> <div class="default" id="partfour">  </div>

Take note!:

class="default" is where you uniformize all the settings to be the same instead of rewriting the same setting in each id

partone,parttwo, etc represents the 'section for the link'. If you refer back tp the navigation above, you'll see that the link/href name is the same as this section. You may change the name to whatever you want to. However, you need to ensure that you also do the same with the link in the navigation area.

Now that you done with this, you can customize default and/or the sections at the css/style area. This is what I did for it:

.default{ width: 100%; height: 100%; overflow: auto; padding:2rem; } .default a{ color:rgb(58, 2, 58); text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold; } .default a:hover{ text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal; } .default img{ width:100%; margin-bottom:1rem; margin-top:0.5rem; } #partone{ background: rgb(248,248,255); background: linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(248,248,255,1) 0%, rgba(223,223,255,1) 50%); } #parttwo{ background: rgb(223,223,255); background: linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(223,223,255,1) 0%, rgba(197,197,255,1) 50%); } #partthree{ background: rgb(197,197,255); background: linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(197,197,255,1) 0%, rgba(172,172,255,1) 50%); } #partfour{ background: rgb(172,172,255); background: linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(172,172,255,1) 0%, rgba(134,134,254,1) 50%); }

Take note!

If you want to uniformize everything (ie not wanting each section to have a different background-color/image), you can simply remove #partone all down to #partfour.

It is important to set the width and height to 100%. This is to ensure that your section will have its own section.

Set the overflow to auto. This is to allow the carousel to scroll in case if the contents overflow.

With that, you’re done! Please take note that what I’m sharing with you is just an idea of how to create a carousel effect using CSS and HTML. There are myriads of ways of creating this design as long as you follow the said concept:

Set your scroll behavior to smooth.

For the basic container, make sure that overflow is set to hidden.

For the navigation, make sure that the link is set to #THE NAME OF THE SELECTOR.

For the carousel, make sure that height and width are set to 100% + overflow is set to auto.

For each carousel, make sure its id is the same as the navigation.

All the best!

#mytutorials #tutorial #theme tutorial #blog

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tanyawritesstories · 4 years

Text

Indecent Distraction | Commander Cody x Reader

A Cody piece all about riling up the stoic Creamsicle and teasing him till he breaks. 😉 Enjoy! @kote-ko for your consideration.

Word count: 2,943

Warnings: NSFW, smut, teasing, oral (m & f receiving, overstimulation, spanking, unprotected sex, Cody is a satisfying dom

•••

You had lost track of how long you'd been sitting in this restaurant. Just waiting for him to show up. It was unlike Cody to be late and he almost never forgot anything. You held out hope and waited longer. Something had probably come up and he hadn't any time to tell you that he would miss dinner. It had been two whole hours and you'd downed three glasses of wine in that time, currently working on your fourth.

A waitressing droid stopped by your table again. "I think you might've been stood up, honey," It hummed. "Probably," you sighed, "Oh well. Can I get my food to go plus an extra order of the same thing." The droid delivered your food to you in boxes and you chugged the rest of your wine before paying and getting a speeder back to your apartment.

You got home and set about reheating the food. While that was going, you walked to the office. Yep, sure enough, there he was. Your boyfriend was sitting at your desk in only his blacks, on your computer, he also had two datapads out with reports and military nonsense on their screens. He was clearly deep in his work, so much so that he didn't even notice you walk in.

“Really?” He looked up long enough to take in your appearance and then went back to his work. “What is it?” He asked, not looking up. “I waited for you at the restaurant for two and a half hours!” You complained. Cody looked at you, regret and sorrow written all over his face. “Oh cyare, I’m so sorry. I got overloaded with work at the last minute and was going to comm you and tell you I couldn’t make it but I got caught up and forgot.” You raised an eyebrow at him, you hoped you looked pissed off because you were. Cody went back to his work which made you even more annoyed. “That’s all you have to say?” You jabbed. “You look nice,” he said, still not looking up.

You threw your hands up and let them fall at your sides. “Whatever, I brought dinner home, I’ll bring it to you.” He said nothing in response and you rolled your eyes as you walked to the bedroom. You changed into a comfy tank top and shorts and went to get the food. You made sure it was hot and added everything you knew he liked onto a plate and took a glass of wine with you.

Sure you were annoyed that he forgot about your date, but he was your boyfriend and you loved him. He was also a very high ranking soldier in the galaxy's best army, he had a lot of people counting on him and that meant he was always busy. You understood, you knew the risk when you two had agreed to be together. You just wished he would take a short break every now and then.

“I brought you dinner, love.” You set the plate and glass down on his desk, picking up one of the datapads and putting the plate in its place. “Thank you, cyar’ika,” Cody stopped his work to kiss you on the cheek before diving right back into the computer. You sighed and leaned on the edge of the desk, swiping through the reports and details on the datapad you had snatched. “(Y/n), what are you doing?” You ignored his question for a moment. “Would you mind if I smashed this?”

Cody’s eyes went wide and the expression on his face was a mixture of shock and horror. You giggled, “I’m joking, eat your food.” You crossed the room and slumped into one of the chairs, still messing with the datapad. You could see your boyfriend glaring at you through the transparent screen. You lowered the device and met his glare with a lighthearted smile.

“You had better not mess up anything on there, for your sake and mine,” he said. “Just eat your food and then I’ll give it back,” you laughed. Perhaps it was a little mean but it got Cody to stop his work and finally eat.

“Thank you again, (Y/n). It was delicious.” You got up from your chair and walked to the other side of the desk, datapad in hand. Cody held out a hand, “May I have that back now?” You held the device against your stomach shielding it from him. “(Y/n), you promised you’d give it back,” He was trying to persuade you and you weren’t going to be mean. “Don’t make me take it from you the hard way,” a suggestive smirk forming on his lips.

“I wish you would,” you admitted, handing him the piece of technology, “We haven’t been together in months.” You walked over to stand behind him in the swivel chair he was sitting in. “We don’t have time for that right now,” he said, scrolling through a datapad and clicking away at the computer.

You sighed. You put your hands on his shoulders and began to massage them. “But I’m sexually frustrated,” you whined. “I know, as am I, but duty comes first,” Cody added. “Can’t you just take a little break, baby?” You ran your hands down his chest, feeling his muscles under his shirt. Cody caught your wandering hands before they reached their destination, “Maybe later, when I’m done with this.” You held back the groan of frustration and retracted your hands. You did your best not to stomp out of the room as you went to go eat dinner by yourself.

You checked up on Cody 30 minutes later, he was still hard at work. You had removed your shorts and bra and was now wearing only a thong and a mostly see through tank top. You hoped to the maker it would get his attention, you wanted him so badly. He had been gone for two months, only sending you short messages and notes whenever he found the time. Two whole months withholding your desires and how the object of your dirty dreams was sitting across the room, oblivious.

You walked in and set about dusting the shelves and cleaning the viewports. You hadn’t cleaned them in forever and this was the perfect excuse. As you dusted off one of the bookshelves you felt Cody’s eyes running up and down your body, settling on your ass which was on full display for him. You made sure to dust the bottom shelves, bending over when you knew he was looking. It was his turn to say: “Really?”

You looked over your shoulder at him, “What, I’m just cleaning.” He gave you a suspicious look. “This room hasn’t been done in forever, I don’t have the motivation to do much of anything while you’re gone.” You heard him huff in disbelief, or annoyance, you couldn’t really tell. “And you had to come in here dressed like that to clean, hmm?” You moved to one of the viewports, wiping it down with a cloth. “It’s not my fault I have nothing else to do.”

When you were done cleaning you put your supplies away and returned to the office, deciding to do some reading. You grabbed a book and sat down in a comfy lounge chair. You would read a few paragraphs and then look up at Cody, then go back to your book. He had apparently not noticed that you came in again. You were determined to get him to take a break from his work, or fuck you, either one would be nice. You set the book in your lap and whisked off your tank top, leaving your breasts exposed to the warm air. You balled up the tank top and threw it at Cody, picking your book back up and looking innocent and normal as ever. The shirt had landed directly on top of the datapad Cody was looking at. He sighed and looked up at you.

"(Y/n)?”

You lowered the book, bringing your body into his view. “Yes, dear?” You looked innocent and kept a straight face. You saw the seriousness in his expression fall as he took in your topless form. It only lasted a few seconds and he was back to Commander mode. He held up the shirt for you to see, “Care to explain what you’re getting at?” You shrugged, “I’m allowed to walk around topless in my own apartment,” you said, “Just ignore me, go back to your work.” He glared at you as you continued reading. He knew what game you were playing and if you continued he didn’t think he could hold back for much longer.

You finished the chapter of your book and gently closed it. You had been keeping an eye on your Commander, hence why it took you half an hour to read one chapter. He was doing surprisingly well staying focused on his work, only glancing at you from time to time. You slowly and quietly got up to put your book away. You slid it back into its place on the shelf, on the wall in front of the desk. You looked at Cody, balls deep in his work instead of you.

You got an idea and quietly dropped to your hands and knees in front of the desk. You crawled to sit underneath it, right in front of your boyfriend’s parted legs. Damn his blacks for getting in the way! Luckily, they were stretchy and easy to remove. You didn’t want him to catch you. You quickly slipped off your thong and set it next to you, careful not to hit your head. You got on your knees and in one swift movement shoved your hand into his blacks and brought his cock out, he was semi hard and warm in your hand. You felt his body jolt and tense up and you brought your mouth to his base and licked. Cody rolled the chair away from the desk just enough so he could see you. Your mouth was torn away from him but your hand stayed on his cock.

“Now what do you think you’re doing?” He wasn’t angry but was definitely pissed. “If you’re not willing to give me anything can I at least have this while you work,” You snapped, moving the hand that was on his dick to get your point across. Cody bit his lip and sighed, “Fine, but be subtle and don’t distract me too much.”

He graciously pulled his blacks down to his knees to allow you better access. “Thank you, dear,” You chirped. Cody rolled the chair back under the desk and you got to work. Stroking him until he was fully hard. You would honor his request for now, it would go out the window soon. You kissed from the base up to his tip and circled it with your tongue, planting a kiss at the very end.

“What did I say about being subtle!” He growled from above you. “Sorry,” you replied.

You put your mouth around him completely and bobbed your head on his length, going slow and doing nothing extreme. You licked his slit for a second and tasted the salty precum that was seeping from him. You engulfed him again and pumped what you couldn’t fit in your mouth. You wanted to make sure he didn’t expect anything more from you before you took action. You could hear his breathing speeding up. You took him to the back of your throat for a second and made sure to coat his cock in as much saliva as you could. You were ready. You pumped him a few more times before taking his cock into your throat, shoving yourself down so your nose touched his abdomen. You heard him moan above you, he made such a pretty sound.

Cody had had it with you, now you were going to pay for distracting him. He slammed his fist on the desk and rolled the chair away, you moved with him and was able to keep his tip in your mouth. You looked up and made eye contact with him. He looked mad, real mad. The sight of you naked on your knees with his cock in your mouth looking up at him with innocent eyes just deepened his lust.

“Alright, that’s it. Get up,” He growled. You let him slip out of your mouth and scrambled to your feet. Cody stood up, grabbed your arm, spun you around, and bent you over the desk. He pressed himself into your back and you could feel his hard length against your thigh.

"You just had to distract me, didn't you?" Cody growled in your ear, shivers going down your back. "I told you to wait till I was finished with my work, and I was almost done," Cody spanked your ass and you whimpered, the sting only adding to your arousal. "You couldn't have waited 15 minutes could you?" Another spank. "No, you had to vie for my attention while I was busy," he spanked you again. "You've been naughty, (Y/n). And you know what happens to naughty girls don't you?" You nodded. "Say it," he snarled. "Naughty girls get punished," you answered, "Cody, please touch me, please!"

"It's Commander to you, sweetheart. Hold onto the desk and don't move," he ordered. "Yes, Commander," you breathed.

Cody got off of you and pulled off the top of his blacks before kneeling behind you, he spread your legs and attached his mouth to your pussy. You moaned out and tried not to move as Cody licked over your hole. He prodded your entrance with his tongue before changing and sliding it over your clit. You held onto the desk for dear life. His tongue felt like paradise as it massaged your folds, so warm and wet. You squeaked when he sucked on your clit and you couldn't help but grind your hips on his face. Cody immediately removed his mouth and spanked you hard.

"I said no moving!" You whined out a sorry and Cody went back to work. His tongue pushed into you and he wiggled it around to taste every delicious inch he could find. He added his fingers into the mix, finding your clit and rubbing circles on it. You were in bliss, the sensations he was causing going through your entire body. "Oh, Commander, I'm getting close," you voiced. Cody hummed against you at hearing his rank fall from your lips. He could feel the precum seeping out and running down his dick. He switched his mouth and his fingers, plunging two of them into you up to his knuckles. You squealed, "I'm going to cum, Commander. Can I cum, please?"

"Cum for me, darling," he ordered, at the same time attaching his mouth to your clit and sucking hard. Your mouth opened in a silent scream and you grabbed the desk so hard your knuckles turned white. Pure ecstasy flooded your whole being.

Cody licked up your juices and got to his feet, he needed you, badly. He was so pent up he knew he wouldn’t last long. He pumped himself a few times, coating his cock in your juices from his fingers. He lined himself up and thrusted all the way inside you. "Cody!" You yelled, "I'm, I'm sensitive still.."

"That's the point," he grunted, "Kriff, you feel so good, so nice and tight."

He picked up his pace right away, not giving you any time to recover from your orgasm. Your cunt was aching from overstimulation but the pain was quickly turned into pleasure. You lifted yourself onto your elbows and began to move back against him. Your moans were loud and frequent as Cody pounded into you, his hands on your hips keeping you still. Your moans were music to his ears and encouraged him to hold off his orgasm that was rapidly approaching. He groaned from behind you and laid himself over your back, your sweaty bodies sticking together. He put one hand on the desk and with the other reached around and fondled your breast. Your mind felt hazy and the only thing you could focus on was the pleasure at your core and his mouth that had started sucking and biting on your neck.

"I'm gonna cum soon," Cody groaned. He hammered into you as fast as he could, your hips repeatedly banging into the edge of the desk. You would undoubtedly have bruises there later. The knot in your stomach was getting ready to snap and you could tell Cody was seconds away. He hit that spot inside you at just the right angle and you were gone, shouting his name as you came undone around him. You clamped down on him and Cody thrust into you as far as he could go, moaning loud and releasing his cum all over the walls of your slick heat. You collapsed on top of the desk and Cody on top of you, panting trying to regain your breath.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“Absolutely not, that was amazing,” you turned your head and kissed him on the cheek. “We should get cleaned up.” Cody cleaned you up as well as himself and put his blacks back on while you put on some comfy sleep clothes. “I suppose you should finish your work now,” you suggested. “There’s not that much left, I can do it in the morning,” Cody enveloped you in a hug, “Right now I want to relax and watch a holovid with you.” You squealed in excitement and beamed up at your boyfriend.

#star wars the clone wars #commander cody x reader #commander cody

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whumpster-fire · 3 years

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Hi, Tumblr! It’s your favorite cartoon star and overall badass, Wendy Weasel! IHC left a little crack in the fourth wall, and as you know us weasels can slip through a space one sixth the thickness of a human hair, so I’ve taken over this blog for April Fool’s Day. You probably won’t notice any difference other than the posts actually being on topic instead of making stupid jokes about a ship stuck in a canal.

And “on-topic” means... “whump?” Seriously, that’s a stupid name - anyway, apparently this sick fuckin’ creep made an entire blog dedicated solely to torturing fictional characters. Can ya believe it? Obviously even reading about such twisted, wanton cruelty is going to scar my young, impressionable mind for life, but based on my meticulous study of this blog, I think I can write prompts that are completely indistinguishable from the ones usually posted on this blog. Check this out!

(Jokes aside, this is going behind a cut for jokes about animal cruelty and suicide, read at your own risk)

Imagine the whumpee attempting to rollerblade down an endless flight of stairs. The moron. The dunderhead. The absolute buffoon. Imagine your favorite character immediately losing control, falling, and tumbling down the unyielding concrete steps like an idiot slinky. Imagine them breaking the sound barrier, hitting a landing, and their rollerskates disintegrating on impact. Imagine the whumpee lying, bruised and broken and mangled at the bottom on an infinite flight of stairs, in a pool of their own blood, as bystanders point and laugh and take videos to put on Youtube. Imagine a single rollerblade wheel bouncing down the stairs and smacking them in the face.

Imagine the whumpee slipping on a banana peel. And breaking their spine. And then being in a wheelchair for the rest of their life. But then their wheelchair also slips on a banana peel and flips over. And they can’t get up, so they have to crawl around everywhere. But then their strength gives way, and they collapse from exhaustion... onto the original banana peel. Which is really fucking gross because it’s been like a month by now. And that causes them to throw up in their mouth.

Imagine a box of meowing kittens. Imagine all of them being taken home by kind, loving owners, except one. The kitten’s all alone in the box. Orphaned. No friends. And it’s raining. Imagine your favorite character walking by, and hearing the tiny kitten crying, and their heart being moved by such a pathetic sight. Imagine them reaching into the box and picking the little kitty up. Heartwarming, isn’t it? Now imagine them picking that little kitty-cat up by the scruff of its neck. Imagine them taking a lighter and, uhh, breaking it open and pouring all the lighter fluid on the kitten. And then taking another lighter and setting it on fire. And drop-kicking it onto the busy freeway. And the kitten being run over by a truck. And then as it’s lying there, guts all over the fucking pavement, meowing “Why doesn’t anyone love me?” imagine a guy on a motorbike stopping and walking up to the kitten. And stomping on its face. Because it’s still on fire. See, this is the realism and internal consistency Whumpster-Fire prides himself on, he’s really fucking full of himself. And then a limousine screeches to a halt, but runs over the kitten again anyway, and a Hollywood talent agent steps out. And he goes “Oh my god, what a heart-wrenching emotional performance! What do you call it?” And your favorite character says: “The Aristocats!” And then Mickey Mouse shows up and he runs the kitten through a meat grinder and sues it for copyright infringement!

Imagine a dragon. But it’s a nice dragon. It’s a nice adorable tiny baby dragon but nobody knows it because humans are mean and nasty. Get it, I’m subverting fantasy tropes by having the monster be the good guy. Aren’t I original? My Nobel Prize in literature’s in the mail, I swear. Anyway, imagine a bunch of evil knights kicking the baby dragon, and hitting it with swords, and then stapling its wings to a billboard and leaving it up there. Forever.

Imagine the whumpee’s this sad-eyed raccoon kid, who’s a criminal because raccoons are sneaky. And he gets caught and taken to jail because he’s not as sneaky and clever as he thinks he is. And all the other criminals all make fun of him because he has this stupid fucking fake British Oliver Twist accent. And his voice always cracks and gets really squeaky whenever anyone calls him a Trash Panda. So he’s sad and he ties his orange prison jumpsuit into a knot and hangs himself from the bars. The end.

Imagine the whumpee is a robot who gets kidnapped and they smash dents with her with a crowbar and force her to wear clown makeup, and go out on stage and perform for a bunch’a dumbass kids, but nobody likes her because clowns aren’t funny. So she snaps and tries to scare the kids instead, but nobody scared of her because clowns in horror is so fucking overdone. And they all boo her and throw tomatoes at her, and the clown robot just stands there and cries tears of oil that ruin her clown makeup.

Imagine the whumpee’s a fairy, but with bird wings because he saw what happened to the kitten and doesn’t want to get sued by Disney. But then he flies into one of those bug zapper things and gets electrocuted - but he’s still alive - and then a bunch of kids burn him with a magnifying glass.

Imagine the whumpee shivering, and trembling, and whimpering, and breathing heavily, for ninety paragraphs straight, until they pass out from exhaustion and boredom at the repetitive writing.

Imagine the whumpee getting stripped naked and chained to a bed... and then the bed getting thrown out a window and the whumpee getting sliced to ribbons by the glass cuts, and then falling into an icy cold river and nearly drowning! Gotcha, didn’t I? This is a family friendly blog, so that means no actual porn, only torture porn!

Imagine a cute, innocent puppy being horribly mauled to within an inch of its life by other dogs, and dragging itself across five miles of rusty nails and broken glass and barbed wire, but then the caretaker picks it up and cuddles it and gives it a band-aid so everything’s fine.

Imagine the whumpee slowly sinking into quicksand. Nah, how about a tarpit. Or that slime stuff they have on Nickolodeon.

Imagine the moment when the whumpee realizes they’ve just walked off a cliff and there’s no ground underneath them, and looking back with a really sad look on their face before they start falling.

Imagine the whumpee is a pokemon who gets caught by Michael Vick and forced to brutally fight other pokemon and get mauled over and over and over.

Imagine the whumpee sobbing into a bowl of Cheetos as they realize nobody reads their fucking animal cruelty torture porn or cares about their dumbass opinions, and nobody’s laughing at their shitty bloodstained solo cup background image.

Wow... y’know, I really think I’ve captured the essence of this blog perfectly. You might as well just shut it down after this, it’s all downhill from here. I’ve broken “whump” down to its bare essentials. All the emotion! All the character development! All the poetic imagery! Hey, maybe I should just run this blog all year round! I’m obviously a way better writer than you - although that’s kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Fuck it, I’m going to bed. Actually, nah, I’m printing this out for Riley to read. Maybe he’ll recognize himself in one of the characters, who knows...

#whump #whump prompts #whump meta #april fool's day #shitpost #Wendy Weasel (OC)#animal abuse tw #gore tw #fourth wall damage tw #suicide tw #I apologize for my OC's fucked-up sense of humor

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ranma-rewatch · 4 years

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Episode 21: This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!

*checks watch* Oh, hey, it’s time for more Ranma 1/2! Hope things are going well for you, person reading this. I’m...fairly sure I know what’s coming? I just don’t really remember exactly how it happens. Will I like it? Will I not? We’ll have to see, next paragraph, after I’ve seen the episode again.

That was...not what I was expecting? This storyline is both moving much faster and much slower than I remember, if that makes any sense. How? Well, let me recap it a bit first.

The episode starts with someone flying into the city on birds. More specifically, a bunch of small birds supporting a larger bird who doesn’t seem to fly, and the person is riding on that bird. It’s weird. She arrives in a construction zone, an old woman with a walking stick taller than she is, and she says something about looking for her son-in-law. Actually, she says it a lot. A steel girder almost falls on her head, but she hits it with her stick in mid-air, shattering the metal into dust, before running off.

It cut from that to Ryoga attacking Ranma. Why? Well, Ryoga doesn’t really need a reason, but this time he does. Namely, the whole Ranma kissing Akane thing from the last episode. Of course, Ranma was in cat-mode at the time and doesn’t remember it at all, no matter how much Ryoga tells him it’s real. After Ryoga gets splashed with cold water, Ranma is then attacked by Sasuke and Kuno for the same reason, and combined with piglet-form Ryoga’s help, Ranma actually gets kinda beat up in the process.

Heading back to the home, he realizes that Akane’s probably mad if it is true, and we see her in the dojo, but she isn’t really working out the way she usually does when she’s mad. If anything, Akane seems conflicted. Ranma shows up to talk about it with her, and immediately apologizes. Akane asks if he remembers doing it, and he admits he doesn’t. Then, Akane wonders, did it not matter? Would Ranma have kissed anyone, and it just happened to be her?

Not understanding what is going on, Ranma stumbles over answering too long, until Akane starts actually getting riled up, calling him a flirt. That pisses Ranma off, so they get into an argument. There’s also a scene where their dads are playing shogi, and they wonder about that pink cat Shampoo sent them, especially since it’s unlikely she knew about Ranma’s fear of felines.

The answer to that comes as Ranma goes to take a nice, hot bath to clean off after the fights he’s had. The cat jumps in with him, and before he can freak out about his greatest fear being in the room, Shampoo emerges from the bath right where the cat had been, and she’s very naked. Yep, the cat was her that whole time!

In a case of Ultimate Bad Timing, Akane comes to take a bath herself and sees Ranma in the bath with a naked Shampoo. We cut directly from that to Ranma practicing what to tell Akane later. Namely, that he won’t apologize or back down, instead being firm on the fact that it wasn’t what it looked like and he did nothing wrong. And we wonder why Ranma has relationship problems.

Akane appears, and she seems fine...before knocking Ranma into a pond. Not long after the water changes him into his cursed form, the old lady from the beginning appears, and Ranma has a very hard time fighting her. She won’t explain who she is or why she’s fighting him, then disappears. That felt...a bit pointless, honestly.

Later, Shampoo comes by the house again, with food. It seems she has moved to Japan officially, and lives and works at a nearby ramen shop. As everyone’s eating the food, the old woman shows up again, taking a place at the table to eat. It’s revealed that she is Shampoo’s great-grandmother, named Cologne, and she’s there to make sure that Shampoo and Ranma get married. Soun fires back about the engagement Ranma already has to Akane, but Shampoo seems to think she has a good argument for why she should be the one to take Ranma’s hand.

She takes him into the bathroom and uses cold water to turn back into a cat, and it’s revealed exactly what happened. Heading back to China, she was shamed for failing to either kill or marry Ranma, and thus had to train with Cologne. They did that at Jusenkyo, for some reason, and Shampoo fell into the Spring of Drowned Cats. So, apparently the curse is Ranma’s fault, and thus he has to marry her. He rightfully points out that’s utter nonsense, but Cologne doesn’t care.

They fight for a bit, with Cologne showing off one of those moves where it looks like there are a bunch of her but only one is real. Ranma uses food and Cologne’s hunger to figure out the real one, but that doesn’t really matter. She’s a bit impressed by him, but still knows he’s far too inexperienced to ever really stand a chance against her. Then she hits him with her stick, and says something about how he’ll be begging to marry Shampoo in a few days.

Why is that? Well, it seems she did something quite diabolical. She apparently hit a pressure point that has caused Ranma to be incredibly sensitive to water. Even cold water feels boiling hot, but it still activates his curse. To turn back to his preferred form, he’d need to use hot water, but with how sensitive his skin is, hot water would be torture to endure. Thus, he can’t turn back into his uncursed state unless he does exactly what Cologne tells him.

Let me start with the stuff I like about this episode. First off, this is a really interesting way to build a story arc that’s very different from the ones that came before. All the story arcs in season one were pretty typical for anime. Each event led directly to the next, it all felt like single stories that just took multiple episodes to tell.

But if you didn’t know the last episode was part of a story arc, you wouldn’t guess that to be the case. It felt like a single-stand alone episode. And it kind of was. Only two things really carried over: Shampoo the Cat being mailed to them, and Ranma kissing Akane at the end of the episode. In fact, when I saw Ryoga and Ranma fighting, it took me a second to realize what they were talking about, because I didn’t think that event from last episode would be carried over.

I really like how it was done, though. The show made it pretty clear that Akane was feeling some feelings about the whole thing, but Ranma was too caught up in the idea that she’d just be plain angry about it to miss what she was really telling him. She wanted him to tell her that actually it did mean something that in his cat-state, he still sought her out and was affectionate towards her. She didn’t want it to be meaningless. That’s really cute, and the miscommunication there was less annoying than it sometimes is and more adorable. Free relationship tip: learning how to properly communicate to your partner is really important!

The concept of finally introducing a character who is actually a better fighter than Ranma is good. Cologne isn’t Ryoga or Shampoo or Kuno. He can’t just beat her in a cool fight, she’s far more experienced and skilled, something that from here will kind of drive the entire arc. The fact that Shampoo ended up with a cursed form that Ranma finds so terrifying is also interesting. She’s kind of scary to him anyway, this unrelenting force who won’t leave him alone no matter what he does, so making her cursed form that but to the tenth degree is pretty neat.

Last good thing: I really love how nonchalant Kasumi is with Shampoo. Like, to her it’s just like, “Oh, Shampoo! You’re back, that’s lovely, do you want to stay for a meal?” Either Kasumi doesn’t understand the complex romance plot going on, or she does and finds it not reason to stop being a good host.

What didn’t I care for? Well, like I said at the start, it feels like this arc is moving too fast and too slow at the same time. In one episode, this story resolves the Akane/Ranma kiss from last episode, the mystery of the pink cat, introduces a new focal player in the story, and curses Ranma with something he’ll have to fix. That’s a lot to happen, and I was really shocked the pressure point thing happened in this episode too.

But at the same time...I really found my interest waning in the back half of this episode. The Cologne fight just isn’t super gripping, to me anyway, especially when the technique she uses just feels very bland. There’s a good five or so minutes, about a quarter of the runtime of the episode, that I was just bored in.

I also like reintroducing Shampoo, only three episodes after she left, was a bit of a mistake, especially when she’s basically a main character from here on out. I know she was very popular, but even then giving the audience some time away from her let’s them miss her, if that makes any sense.

There was originally going to be a Cologne based Character Spotlight, but then I decided not to because we still haven’t seen a lot from her, and also I’m very tired and my birthday was Monday please stop bullying me

So, yeah, if you couldn’t tell I’m kind of meh on this episode. It’s not bad. It’s not great. I enjoyed the first half quite a bit, but the back half was a little more of a struggle. It was in fact a big enough dip that I’m putting this episode fourth from the bottom, just above the P-Chan introduction episode.

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’

Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 15: Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 17: I Love You, Ranma! Please Don’t Say Goodbye

Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!

Episode 16: Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 21: This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Episode 14: Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan

Episode 18: I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?

But hey, maybe things will be different next time? I’m actually pretty sure I’ll like it better, because now we’re really getting into the stuff I can remember. Namely, Ranma is going to be introduced to what will be his signature technique in “Behold! The 'Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire' Technique”. I’ll be there next week, and I hope you will too.

#episode 21 #This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!#ranma 1/2 #ranma saotome #akane tendo #shampoo #cologne #anime analysis #anime rewatch

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it-me-ari · 4 years

Text

“Beautiful Pain” (reposte)

This is a fic I wrote a while ago and I never proof read (there were soo many mistakes). Also I didn’t make any paragrahs and could only post it in screenshots bc my phone couldn’t handle it. But here it is again, corrected, with paragraphs and as a normal text post!

The Winchesters and I just came back from a hunt and I was about to cook something for all of us (Dean didn't care for healthy food as usual) when Arthur Ketch, our favourite brit (not) suddenly stepped into our meeting room. Sam and Dean pulled out their guns in an instant and I was ready to throw my knife at him but instead of attacking he just lifted his hands above his head. "Don't shoot. I come in peace." He said in a calm voice and carefully pulled a badly beaten up person, clothed in dirty rags, beside him. "And I come bearing gifts." He continued and gestured at the poor guy who looked at us with tensed shoulders and fear in his eyes. I didn't recognize him at first, as he was covered in blood and dirt, but then it hit me and I took a sharp breath. "Gabriel?!" I whispered, trying to push down the emotions that whirled up inside me.

I thought he was dead. I thought I'd never see him again. Hell, I didn't eat for weeks because of his death. Before he 'died' we were good friends, that had the potential to be something more, considering our flirting and teasing it wouldn't have been long before we got together. And, most importantly, Gabriel kissed me before he took on Lucifer and got 'killed'. I couldn't believe what I saw, what had happened to him? I didn't understand why he was alive and why he looked like someone tortured him. Ketch explained that Asmodeus, fourth prince of no hell, had captured him, tortured him and drained him of his grace to inject it himself. The Winchesters and I changed meaningful glances, archangel grace was the last ingredient we needed to open a door to Mary and Jack.

“We're gonna need his grace." Sam finally said you could see that he felt guilty saying that, as Gabriel was in such a bad shape. As soon as he said that the archangel whimpered and stumbled backwards in panic. "Wow calm down. I've also brought this-" said Ketch, calming Gabriel while pulling out two ampoules, filled with shimmering grace, carefully he put them on the table. Gabriel's reaction hurt me, this was not the cocky, powerful archangel I remembered, this was a broken soul, scared and hurt. I hated seeing him like this, hurt, broken, fearful. It pained me that he was suffering so much and the strong urge to take care of him and protect him rose inside me. The boys finally put their guns away and started strategizing with Ketch, unsure what to do with him, they argued for quite a while. I was still in shock about the sudden twist our mission had taken and didn't participate.

Finally, they decided that Dean and Ketch will go to apocalypse world to save Mary and Jack, while Sam and I would stay at the bunker to take care of Gabriel and to guard the door. After they left Castiel arrived and the three of us tried to get a reaction from Gabriel, but he either didn't realize our presence or didn't remember us. Anyway it was very painful to watch him in that state and I almost couldn't bear it, but I kept reminding myself that I had to be strong for Gabriel. When we tried to give him the ampoule of his grace we had left he struggled and refused to take it. "I don't think he will accept it in his current state," Cas stated worried and we decided to let him rest for a while.

After a few hours Cas went to check on Gabriel and what he found in the room caused him to call for us in an urgent tone. "Sam, Angel!" Sam and I were there in an instant, equally surprised how the room had changed. The walls were covered in enochian symbols from top to bottom. "What is this? Did he do that?" I stuttered and looked at Cas in confusion: "Is it enochian?"

Cas scanned the walls with a frown before he answered: "It's his story. It starts with his death." I winced as I remembered how Gabriel died in front of my eyes, murdered by his own brother. Cas continued, oblivious to my reaction to his words: "Or what appeared to be his death. 'As usual, my brother had double my brawn and half my brains. He assumed the counterfeit me is what vanished that night and he thought that he'd stabbed the real thing.' " He ran his fingers over the symbols before he kept on reading: " 'The truth is, the thing Luci skewered was a fake. Plenty of fakes to go around. Everyone believed Gabriel was gone. And suddenly, I was free. No obligations to god or heaven or mankind. And so I did what everyone would do. I moved to Monte Carlo and shacked up with porn stars.' "

As he read those words my head snapped up and I looked at Gabriel in shock, unable to conceal my feelings. It was probably the wrong time to be jealous and hurt but I couldn't ignore the sharp pain in my chest, it felt like someone stabbed me in the heart. I realized that I never had a chance at a relationship with Gabriel. To him, I was just a toy, a mildly amusing distraction at the end of the world. And the kiss was probably just to underline the drama of his 'death'. Cas, who didn't see my reaction, read quietly for a while before he started talking again: "Well he goes on and on for quite a while about porn stars and, uh-" "Cas, please." Interrupted Sam, guessing how I was feeling about the things he just said.

Cas looked at me briefly and continued: "Okay, so Gabriel was captured and delivered to Asmodeus. 'For years, I knew nothing but endless torture. Asmodeus, once the weakest of Hell's princes, grew strong by feeding on my grace.' " I looked at Gabriel again and felt how anger cut through the pain, I hated Asmodeus for doing that to Gabriel, even though he left me for some porn stars I still loved him and didn't want anyone to hurt him. Well, obviously his intellect is intact." Stated Castiel after a few minutes of grave silence. "So, why isn't he talking to us?" I whispered, not trusting my voice to conceal my mixed feelings. "I don't know, maybe he can't." Answered Castiel, his voice filled with helplessness. "Or maybe he's choosing not to. Maybe he thinks it's safer that way." Said Sam quietly, sounding like he knew the feeling. I tensed slightly and dropped my head, wishing desperately I could help him.

In an attempt to make things better we helped Gabriel to sit down on the bed and Castiel and I tried to heal him. Neither of us had any luck, his injuries were too severe. Castiel looked at us, his hands still on Gabriel's head: "It's not possible for an angel to heal an archangel. I'm just trying to jolt his mind into thinking straight." He sighed and removed his hands from Gabriel. "Even then, it's possible that he's lost." I breathed in shakily, holding back my tears, I just couldn't bear the thought that Gabriel might be lost forever. Sam silently put his hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me.

After that Castiel left, while I and Sam stayed with Gabriel, keeping him company. It was silent for a long while, neither I nor Sam knew what to say. Finally, Sam stood up and faced Gabriel with an intense gaze. "Gabriel, you have to dig yourself out of this hole. Look, I know you think it's safer inside. No more torture. No more pain. No more expectations." He sighed and looked at Gabriel, searching for something that would indicate that he understood what Sam was saying. But he just stared into nothing, his eyes empty. So Sam continued: "I've been there. You were nothing like your family. You sure as hell weren't like your dad. Me either. And just like you, I got out. Or I thought I got out. But then.." He took a step closer to Gabriel, still looking at him intensely. "Then, my family needed me. And this is my life. No matter how many times I've tried to fight it, this is what I was put here to do. This is where I make the world a better place." He sighed again and shrugged his shoulders in a resigned way. "And sure, yeah, hookers in Monte Carlo, sounds great, but your family needs you. Jack, your nephew, needs you. The world needs you. We need you." He paused and looked briefly at me, before turning his head back to Gabriel: "Angel needs you." He said quietly and let Gabriel time to process his words. "So please, help us." He said finally.

It was silent for a few minutes and just when I thought Sam's speech didn't get through to Gabriel at all, he said something: "Porn stars. They were porn stars, Sam." His eyes glowed in a bright blue and the ghost of his old, cocky grin flickered across his face. As much as I was relieved that we got Gabriel back, I was also hurt that the first words he said after years of torture were about porn stars. Porn stars. Barely able to hold back my tears I stormed out of the room, through the long corridors of the bunker, in my room, where I threw myself in my bed and started crying. I knew I should be happy that Gabriel was alive and still kind of sane, but I couldn't ban the image of him with some porn stars of my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that he faked his death and took off without a word to me. I thought we had something going on, but the fact that he abandoned me for his freedom told a different story.

Back in Gabriel's room, he barely noticed that I left because he was still not completely himself, Sam and Castiel fed him the other ampoule of his grace to help him recover. Only seconds after that, Sam's phone rang. He picked up and put the person calling on speaker: "Samuel." An all to familiar voice said in a confident tone. Gabriel looked up in horror and jerked back, it was the voice of his torturer. It was Asmodeus. "I hope you're having a pleasant day." Gabriel’s breath quickened and he looked like a cornered animal. "It's come to my attention you boys have something that belongs to me and I'd like it back." Sam and Castiel exchanged worried glances but he answered calmly: "I don't know what you're talking about." "Oh, I believe you do. And I'm gonna give you one chance to return him to me. No harm, no foul." If I were present during that phone call I'd ripped the phone out of Sam's hand to give him a piece of my mind. But Sam just stayed cool as he answered simply: "I'm hanging up." Asmodeus didn't like that: "Do not hang up on me." He roared furiously. "Gabriel is of no use to you in his current condition. Should you choose to resist me, I have no choice but to take him by force." Gabriel looked horrified at his words and panted fearfully. "I will reduce you and that sad little bunker of yours to ashes. You've got ten minutes." With that said he just hung up, leaving Gabriel on the edge of a panic attack and two very worried boys.

Meanwhile, I was in my room, trying to get myself together again. By the time the bunker went into the emergency mode, I'd stopped crying and was almost back to normal again, or at least almost ready to act normal again. As soon as the lights went red and the alarm started blaring, I burst out of my room and rushed to the entrance, almost running into Sam and Cas, who were headed to the same direction. "What's going on?!" I asked tensed, a knife in my hand. "Asmodeus. He's coming for Gabriel." Sam answered courtly and fastened his pace. When we reached the conference room we were immediately attacked by a bunch of demons, but we could handle them without a problem. The problems started when Asmodeus himself appeared, grinning arrogantly at us.

"Your warding wasn't designed for the likes of me, Samuel." He pinned the three of us against a wall, using his powers and looked at us, mildly amused. "I've come to claim what's mine." We had to watch helplessly how two demons dragged Gabriel across the room towards Asmodeus, he looked confused and scared. Asmodeus walked towards him and patted his cheek with an arrogant smile. "Oh, I missed you, boy." Gabriel whimpered and turned his head away from him. Asmodeus chuckled and took a step back, Gabriel squirmed under his gaze and looked up to him like a frightened child. "I'm gonna have to punish you rather severely, I'm afraid." He said, trying to achieve a fatherly tone, but it just sounded slimy. Gabriel breathed heavily and looked around, his eyes pleading for help. Watching a pathetic little demon like Asmodeus treating a powerful, several millennia's old archangel like a naughty child made me furious and gave me new strength. Somehow I managed to break free from Asmodeus' grip and jumped at him with my knife directed at his heart. But he saw me coming and with just a single movement of his hand, I was thrown against a wall again. This time I wasn't so lucky, my head slammed against the wall and I immediately lost my consciousness, causing me to miss all the following action.

Asmodeus watched Gabriel with a while, a satisfied smile on his lips. Finally, he nodded towards the stairs and the demons holding him dragged him up the stairs and towards the bunker door. Asmodeus straightened his suit in a business-like manner and turned towards the boys. "As for you two.." he raised his fists and slowly started closing them, causing Sam and Castiel to squirm in pain. Apparently, he had forgotten about unconscious me, lying beneath the table. Meanwhile, Gabriel and the two demons dragging him reached the top of the stairs, where Gabriel struggled and overwhelmed them. He threw them both over the railing and leaned on it, panting. Asmodeus frowned and shifted his attention to the battered archangel: "Gabriel. What are you doing, son?" His voice was amused, bursting with confidence. If I had been awake this statement would've made me furious. Asmodeus smiled sadistically: "You know too well what I can do to you." The angel didn't react, his head hanging low, his hands tightly gripped the railing. Asmodeus frowned, now getting angry, and shouted: "I broke you!"

Gabriel slowly lifted his head, eyes glowing bright blue. "You're too weak!" Asmodeus shouted again, now really furious. With a sudden movement, Gabriel straightened his back while at the same time his appearance changed back to normal. His wounds disappeared, so did the blood and the dirt and his hair were clean and fluffy again. With still glowing eyes he looked down at Asmodeus, unfolding his wings as a demonstration of power. The look on Asmodeus' face changed as he slowly began to realise that Gabriel was finding back to his old self, hectically he produced a lightning bolt and threw it at Gabriel. But the archangel casually slapped it to the side, cracked his head a little and looked at Asmodeus with cold eyes: "Not anymore." He tilted his head a little and said in his usual, mocking tone: "Oh, by the way, I always hated that dumbass suit." And with that, leaving Asmodeus no time to react, his hand jerked forward, his eyes started glowing and Asmodeus slowly started smoking. Gabriel twisted his hand a little and the smoke turned into fire. Asmodeus looked at his hands in horror and started screaming, Gabriel smiled and watched satisfied how his torturer burned to death. And I was still unconscious, which really annoys me now, I would've enjoyed seeing him burn.

Afterwards (after they brought me to my room) Cas and Sam told Gabriel everything that'd happened, including how we want to save Mary Winchester and his nephew Jack from an alternate universe. It was a lot to take in and Gabriel, freshly recovered, was a little overwhelmed. "Whoa- too much information." He stuttered. "Slow down, I'm not processing." He groaned and massaged his temples. Castiel sighed: "And there's more... Michael wants to come to this earth and destroy it. We may need your help to fight him." Gabriel slowly raised his eyebrows, obviously hoping that he'd heard wrong: "What?" Sam chuckled softly at his reaction: "Yeah." It was not a happy chuckle tho, more like a 'yeah, I know, we're fucked' chuckle. Gabriel looked at Sam with a 'please tell me you're joking' face. Sam sighed and said with fake joy: "Welcome to the team."

The archangels face showed his disapproval: "Uh- yeah. Not so much." He said slowly and leaned back. "I mean, thank you for the rescue and for the redemption arc, but uh-" he slowly stood up while speaking "I'm not really a 'team' guy." Sam looked at him like a lost puppy while Cas, already knew what came next, looked annoyed. Gabriel, not caring about any of them, continued speaking: "Sooo, I'm gonna bounce, okay? Uhm, but, you know, it's been- uhm- What's the opposite of fun?" He tilted his head a little, pretending to think about it, then answered the question himself: "That." He walked past the two boys, seemingly not caring at all. "No. Gabriel, don't- you- you can't just walk way!" Stuttered Sam, still looking like a lost puppy. "If Michael comes here, he will end this world." He continued after Gabriel just walked past him. The angel sighed and turned around: "And the last time the world was ending, I put my money on you." He said and pointed at Sam with a finger gun. "I think you can pull it off again." He turned around and started walking again when Castiel spoke: "No. You cannot turn your back on your father's creation." His face was serious as he when he appealed to his sense of honour. Gabriel turned around again and looked at the other angel almost pitiful: "Castiel, my father turned his back to his creation." After no-one replied he shrugged and said: "Guess it just runs in the family" sounding a little bitter and before anyone could answer he was gone.

That was the moment when I walked into the room, I could just hear the flutter of his wings and frowned in confusion, I was still dizzy from my head injury. "What the hell is going on?" I asked Sam and Cas and they told me everything. "He- he left?" I whispered, close to crying. Again. Nobody said anything. Cas looked at me with pity. Sam pulled me into a hug. When Dean got back from apocalypse world, without Ketch, we found out that he wasn't able to find Mary and Jack and Ketch decided to stay in apocalypse world to prepare everything for another rescue attempt. He was not happy when he found out that Gabriel took off and we haven't had any archangel grace left.

Two weeks later, after we found Rowena, we finally knew were Gabriel was and of course we immediately took off to the town where Rowena's tracking spell told us he was. I was not sure how I should feel, now that we had a real clue where Gabriel was. I was still hurt about how he acted but I also missed him, I've been missing him for over 7 years and his sudden appearance brought all the feelings back. I wanted at least talk to him, maybe shout at him. Arguing from the other end of the motel room brought me back to reality and I decided to see what Sam and Dean were fighting about this time. Turned out, that Sam wanted to stay longer in this town, to check every possibility, while Dean wanted to move on. "We don't have time Sammy!" He shouted angrily, but also desperate, he was like this all the time since he came back from apocalypse world without Mary and Jack. "Mom and Jack, they could be hurt or worse. And we're stuck here in this stupid motel room looking for some runaway, dumbass archangel who doesn't wanna be found!"

Sam frowned and opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything I decided to involve myself and maybe try to calm things down. "Dean, calm down, we still have a chance of finding Gabriel. I mean, yeah, Rowena isn't the most trustworthy person but she is a powerful witch after all." I said in a calm voice, hoping I could reason with him. But he just rolled his eyes: "This town has more than five houses, Angel, what do you think is gonna happen? That Gabriel just comes here like 'hey fellas, I'm here to help you'?" I opened my mouth to protest but was interrupted by someone knocking on our door. I exchanged glances with the brothers and together we walked to the door, weapons ready. Dean carefully opened it and what was behind that door took us all by surprise.

It was Gabriel, with messy hair and a bloody shirt. He smiled weakly at our dumbstruck faces: "Hey fellas, looking for me?" Slowly we put our guns down and let him in. I wanted to heal his wound but Dean wouldn't let me, he didn't want Gabe getting strong enough to disappear again, so I let Sam handle it. It was bad being so close to him and knowing that I never meant anything to him, but it was worse that he acted like he didn't know me. He barely looked at me and only shot me a curious look when I offered to heal him. I mean I never told him about my powers, but it still hurt to see him act that way. I tried to ban these thoughts from my mind and watched Sam patching up Gabriel instead. "Alright, this is gonna hurt a little." He said while he bandaged him. "A little?" Gabriel groaned and shut his eyes in pain. I couldn't fight a smile, guess he wasn't used to being actually hurt.

"How'd you know we were here?" Sam asked after he finished and looked at the wounded archangel. Dean and I stood beside him, watching him with emotionless faces, probably the first time I was with Dean when it comes to deal with the Trickster. "Come on." Said Trickster chuckled and sat up. "I felt your witch's tracking spell the second she laid it on me. Tasted like haggis." "So now you're in trouble?" Sam asked casually while putting away his medical stuff. "What gave you that idea?" Gabriel asked, trying to sound as cool as always. Dean lifted his eyebrows and answered: "Well, you show up at our doorstep, bleeding like a stuck pig." "This?" Gabriel laughed, gesturing at his wound. "Eh you know, I roll into town, have some fun, stumble into the wrong poker game, take a guy's money... his wife.." He shrugged. "Things get messy." None of us believed him for a second, I was the one to voice my disbelief: "You're trying to tell us you came here to have some fun?" I asked with raised eyebrows. "Yeah, this isn't exactly the Riviera." Dean scoffed. "I know right?" Gabe laughed and then looked at me curiously. I hated it, like he never met me.

Then he cleared his throat and got ready to stand up: "Yeah, so anyway, uhm- I don't suppose you guys have any more of my grace laying around, right? 'Cause, uh, the tank's a little low." He looked up hopefully and I reluctantly admitted to myself that he looked adorable like that. "Did you drain it killing Asmodeus?" Sam asked, sounding a little worried. "And ditching you," Gabriel added and I winced, another thing that hurt. "I'll recharge eventually but uh- until then..." He didn't finish the sentence and looked a little desperate. "Whatever we didn't use on you, we used to open up a rift." Dean finally said. The archangels face showed literally 'oh fuck' and he was silent for a while. "...cool" he finally said. "Super duper. Okay. Well, uh, in that case, gentlemen and lady, I must bid you my goodb-" he groaned loudly as he tried to stand up and his wound hurt. "Yeah, no-" he said, leaning back again. "Maybe after a little siesta." With that said he laid down on the couch and closed his eyes. The fact that he actually fell asleep worried me a little, even though I tried to ignore that. We used the time he slept to discuss what we should do with him.

"I don't get why he's here," Sam said thoughtfully and looked at the sleeping angel. "Yeah, well, right now I don't care. He's here and we're gonna keep him here." Dean said and before I could say something Gabriel woke up in a jolt. "Where am I?" He mumbled confused until he saw us sitting at the table. "Oh, right. You." He sighed and touched his wound carefully. "Ouch." He winced and looked down at his stomach. Sam stood up. "Gabriel, look, we don't really know what's going on here." "We need your help," I said bluntly, staring at him with a neutral expression. "Uh-" he started, confused about my behaviour "Yeah, not a big joiner." He chuckled. Dean looked at him and raised his eyebrows triggered. "So you have better things to do than save the world?" "Exactly." He answered defensively. Dean and I exchanged glances while Gabriel tried to stand up again. "Look, this has been great, a real thrill, but uh- I just came here for the silver stuff. And since you don't have it anymore-" he lifted his suitcase and jacket and stood up with a barley concealed grunt "-it's time for me to say sayonara."

In exactly that moment the door flew open and two men stood in the doorway. "We're here for the angel." Said the big, muscular one with a Scandinavian accent, while the other one, a smaller, slimmer man (more a boy than a man), just flexed with his nicely done hair. For a second under the big one's features glowed a dangerous-looking face with horns, while the slim one had a horses head underneath his human face. "What the hell are you guys?" Asked Dean horrified, then whispered to Gabriel, loud enough for everyone to hear: "The hell are these guys?" "Oh, just a couple of Norse demigods." Answered the angel in his typical, casual way. "Demigods?" I snapped and raised my knife, ready to fight. It followed a brief fight that ended with Gabriel stabbing the big guy with a wooden sword that looked like a katana. When his body dropped to the ground the other dude froze and stared at Gabriel with wide eyes. "Hey, handsome" the angel teased "are you ready to die?" The boy broke free from his paralysis and ran away. As soon as he was out of sight, Gabriel lowered the sword and held his wound, groaning.

Dean relaxed a little and looked at Gabriel. "You okay?" He asked, even tho the answer was obvious. "Yeah, yeah.. I'll go after him in a sec... I just.. need a minute." Answered Gabriel panting, still holding his wound. "Wrong." Replied Dean simply and pulled out a pair of angel-proof handcuffs. "You're not going anywhere." Gabriel looked at the handcuffs and sighed frustrated, but didn't seem surprised. So we tied Gabriel to the bedframe and went to get rid of the body, laying in our room. "You know, you guys are lucky I'm low on power, considering what I did to the last guy who locked me up." Dean took off his jacket unimpressed. "You know what?" He asked. "We said we'd let you go, just as soon as you tell us what the hell is going on here." Gabriel looked away "yeah.." he clicked his tongue "it's not a fun story." "Well, we just broke into a junkyard and stuffed the body of a demigod into a car crusher. So I think you owe us some answers." Sam and Dean threw their jackets at their beds and sat down in front of Gabe, while I leaned against the wall.

“Okay, they’re not really demigods." Gabriel started, which just got him unimpressed stares from each of us, so he continued, sounding almost defensive. "Look, the whole Norse pantheon is its own weird thing." He looked at us, checking if we were listening. "Think of them more like, uh, God begotten monsters-" "Yeah, whatever. What did they want with you?" Interrupted Dean impatiently. Our 'prisoner' sighed, knowing his stalling time was over: "I killed their brother." He said directly. Sam looked at him like 'you did WHAT?' but then just asked why. The archangel was silent for a moment and then started he started to talk: "Remember when I told you what happened after I faked my death at that motel?" He asked and I closed my eyes, knowing what was about to come. "Yeah, of course, you went to uhh- Monte Carlo with a bunch of porn stars." Dean's reaction was soft chuckle like 'niiice dude', but then he was serious again.

"Yeah, well, I left a few parts out." Gabriel took on narrating again: "After Lucifer 'killed me', I needed to lay low. Luckily, I used to hang with a pretty resourceful crew. Found me a real top-shelf hideaway." He then told us about this fancy penthouse, the porn stars, how he played poker and so on. "I had it made." He sighed. "All the booze I could drink, all the uh- entertainment, I could handle.." Sam saw how my gaze hardened and quickly interrupted before he could continue: "Okay. Why don't we just skip to the end?" Dean looked a little disappointed but seemed to understand, while Gabriel was kind of offended, but then he sighed and skipped, as requested, to the end of his story: "So this is how it ended. The two dudes from earlier, along with their brother, captured me in my sleep and somehow managed to sedate me. By the time I came to, they had me sold to Asmodeus."

"Why would they do that?" Asked Sam, looking confused. Gabriel looked at Sam like he was stupid: "Helloo? Lucifer? In case you don't remember, there was an apocalypse brewing at the time." "We remember." Sam courtly answered. "Well, Vegas odds had my bro pulling off a big win." "Yeah? And whose fault is that?" Dean asked coldly. Gabe pressed his lips together and didn't answer at first. "Hmmm." He said finally. "Fenrir, Sleipnir and Narfi were just trying to cover their asses. They needed to get rid of me before Lucifer figured out where they had me hidden. But selling me to that Kentucky fried asshole? For them? That was all profit." His speech grew a bit heated towards the end, but who would blame him? Dean nodded slowly and then asked: "So you want revenge?" Gabriel rolled his eyes: "Well, obviously. Roasting Asmodeus was satisfying- for a hot minute. But you know one thing better than killing him? Slaughtering them all."

Sam nodded slowly. "But since you're low on grace, you had to do it the old fashioned way. With wood." The archangel smirked: "Don't let anybody ever tell you, you're just a pretty face. Sam stood up from his chair and looked down at Gabe: "All right. Anyway, if there are only three, uh- gods, monsters, whatever-" he walked over to Gabriel suitcase with the swords and opened it "how come there are four swords?" "Oh, that top one? That is for the man with the plan, the architect of my torture and my own, personal public enemy number one. Their papa. Loki." His eyes were dark as he spoke out his name and a shudder ran down my spine, he was scary when he had that look on his face. "Hold on-" Dean was confused, "I thought Loki was you?" Gabriel then explained how he once saved Loki and therefore the god of mischief let him use his identity. We were silent for a while, then I asked: "And you saw Loki in Monte Carlo?" He looked at me, again with that thoughtful, curious look in his eyes: "Well, I needed someplace to hide." He then answered, shrugging his shoulders. “And he’d already helped me once.”

Dean nodded slowly then looked away and scoffed: "You know, none of this would've happened if you'd just stuck around and helped us fight Lucifer." Gabriel looked at him offended: "Hey, I did help you!" Yeah, but you didn't stick around. I thought and looked away for a second. But Gabriel was now in defence mode. "Casa Erotica?" Oh yeah, I remembered this. I cried. Good times. "You call that help?" Asked Sam, in disbelief. "I call that art." Gabriel shot back. "But, yes, without me, you two chuckleheads and that girl-" Really Gabe? Just "that girl"? Thanks. "-never would've known how to throw Lucifer back in the cage!" Dean was not impressed: "Yeah, but instead of giving us a hand, you ran and you just did it again when you ditched us in the bunker!" His voice grew louder every second and this time, I didn't try to calm him down, I agreed silently. "Alright, Dean-" Sam tried to stop him but Gabriel got in the way: "I have more important things to do than to join your little band of merry men." He spat back. "What you're doing. This. This is not important-" Dean started to argue back but Gabriel cut him off. "Every day, Asmodeus tortured me! Every day! He fed off my grace for years! He used me. He debased me. Until I was-" he broke off and calmed down a bit. Nobody dared to say something until he continued. "What I went through, you don't forgive. Everyone who had a hand in it will die. Get me?!" He asked aggressively.

Sam wanted to answer but now I had enough. "Of course we get you." I snapped and came closer. "Everyone of us gets you," I growled. "Dean went to hell for fucking 40 years. He was tortured every single day for 40 years! Every day! He got the mark of Cain and became a demon! Sam's soul was in the cage with Lucifer and Michael for 120 years, being tortured by the devil himself! He got possessed by an angel and had to watch him kill one of his friends! And I too, know torture, physical and mental. (I deliberately didn't go into detail here, it was too personal) We all lost so much over the years. Friends. Family. But we didn't give up. We didn't run. We kept going and saved the fucking world more than once. So would you stop thinking about yourself for one goddamn minute and get yourself together? We need you. The world needs you." I started screaming but ended with barely a whisper. Everyone stared at me with wide eyes. I scoffed and left the room, I needed alone time to get my feelings under control.

After I left, Sam and Dean stared at Gabriel, waiting for him to say something. After a few minutes of complete silence, he looked up. "I guess-" he cleared his throat "I guess she's right.. I'm sorry guys." He just seemed tired now. Neither Sam nor Dean answered, but their gazes softened a little bit. "Okayyy awkward-" Gabriel tried to find back to his usual, unbothered self. "Can you at least tell me who that girl was who just shouted at me? I feel like I know her but I can't put my finger on it.." That was the wrong thing to say. "You don't remember her?" Dean growled and glared at him murderously. "Should I?" Gabe raised an eyebrow, more confused than scared. "Angel? The girl who lives with us in the bunker? The half nymph?" Sam tried to jolt his memory. Gabriel's eyes widened in shock: "That was her? That was my Angel?!" "She's not your Angel! And she never will be, not after what you put her through." Snapped Dean and stabbed him with his gaze. "What I put her through? I-I didn't do anything to her!" Gabriel exclaimed, truly shocked by the accusation.

Sam sighed: "You died. She never recovered from that. She didn't eat properly for weeks. She didn't go out. She cried every night. Gabriel, that girl loves you with every cell of her body and after she learned that you went to Monte Carlo to "shack up with porn stars".. well it hurt her almost worse than the fact that you let her in the dark about you being alive." Gabriel's head dropped to the ground. "I was just trying to protect her.." He looked up to the boys: "You have to believe me! I never meant to hurt her! I love her!" His eyes were desperate and the brothers knew he was telling the truth. "Alright." Sam finally sighed. "But you need to tell her that." He said with a serious face and unlocked the handcuffs that kept the archangel in check. "Woah- you're just gonna let him go?" Dean objected, not happy with his younger brother. Sam sighed. "Dean.." Dean just rolled his eyes and raised his hands: "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Go talk to her." Though it was clear that he wasn't exactly happy about that. Gabriel sighed in relief and stood up. "Thank you, I'll be back." He walked to the door and froze. "Uhm... Guys?" Sam and Dean looked at each other alerted and rushed to see what Gabriel had discovered. In front of the door lay a strand of my hair, a lollipop and a piece of paper saying 'catch me if you can'. "What the hell..?" Dean asked, looking at Gabriel for an explanation. Gabe sighed and picked up the lollipop. "Loki." He said with a dark look in his eyes. Sam looked at him horrified while Dean slammed him against the wall, furiously. "So you're saying that because of your stupid little revenge plans, a Norse god captured Angel?" "Dean, we don't have time for this! We have to get her back!" He said urgently and Dean reluctantly let the archangel go. "Okay, Gabriel, do you have any idea where Loki might be?" Asked Sam, trying to stay calm and focus.

You're probably wondering how I got into this situation, well, lemme tell ya. As you might remember I left the room after I was done shouting at Gabriel. I planned to go for a walk to cool off a little and to get a grip on my emotions, but then someone knocked me out with a baseball bat. (That was quite painful.) When I woke up again I was in a luxurious suite, apparently a penthouse, I looked around in confusion and noticed a guy standing by the window, his back turned to me. Apparently, he sensed that I was awake and turned to me, smiling, a lollipop in his hand. I gasped as I saw his face: "Gabriel?!" Then the rational part of my brain kicked in: "No you're not Gabriel, you are- are you Loki?" The dude looking like Gabriel smiled and nodded appreciatively: "Smart girl." I probably should be terrified, held captive by the god of mischief, but I was actually delighted, I always had a thing for Norse mythology.

"Amazing!" I exclaimed, causing Loki to raise his eyebrows, visible confused, apparently not the reaction he had expected. "Excuse me?" "Actually, I'm a fan." I grinned at him and spend the following minutes discussing Norse mythology with Loki, a dream come true. But suddenly we heard noises from outside the door and Loki sighed. "I'm afraid I might have to kill you soon, although I really do like you." I nodded solemnly: "You need to pressure Sam and Dean, eh?" I guessed. "That's okay, I understand." My reaction to someone telling me that they would kill me might seem a little odd but frankly, I didn't care if I would live or die, plus I was pretty sure that even Loki couldn't defeat Sam and Dean. "You sure are something, I understand why he likes you so much." The god murmured, watching me thoughtfully. "He?" I asked in confusion, but Loki didn't get to answer, as the door burst open and the Winchesters, lead by Gabriel, stormed into the room.

I was mildly surprised to see him, but then again, he wanted his revenge so it made sense. "Ahh Gabriel, glad you decided to show up," Loki exclaimed, greeting the archangel like an old friend. "And you brought your friends, how nice of you." He chuckled and eyed the Winchesters in amusement. "What do you want, Loki?" He growled, a wooden sword in his hand. The god's face turned hard and he pulled a knife, holding it to my throat. "I'm gonna see you suffer and then I will kill you." Now I was confused, why was he threatening Gabriel with my death? "Don't bother, Gabriel won't care about my death. You would piss of Sam and Dean tho, and believe me- you don't want that." I said calm and collected, not caring about the cold knife at my throat. I did not expect Gabriel's reaction to Loki's words tho: "Don't you fucking dare killing her!" He growled and took a step closer to us. "Ah-ah, be careful!" Loki said in a cheerful voice and increased the pressure on my throat, causing it to cut into my skin and I felt a small rinsal of blood running down my throat, Gabriel immediately froze, watching me with wide, anxious eyes.

Surprised I realized that he actually cared about me, at least enough to not want me dead. "You must know, that Gabriel here cares about you quite a lot," Loki said, his face close to my ear. He smirked at Gabriel and the Winchesters provocative. "He wouldn't shut up about you." I looked at Gabriel, eyes wide with disbelief. "He does?" Gabriel smiled at me weakly but didn't respond. "Oh yes, of course." Loki laughed delighted and stepped away from me again. He was about to say something but before he could he was attacked by Dean, who had sneaked up from behind. Then Gabriel appeared in front of him, stabbing the wooden sword into his heart before he could even react. Meanwhile, Sam freed me from the ropes that strapped me to the chair, then he hugged me tightly. After he released me, Dean pulled me into a hug, relieved I was still alive and well. "Alright let's go." He finally said and let me go. I nodded but looked down on Loki's body one last time. "I actually liked him." I sighed and left the room, following Sam and Dean. Gabriel followed after me and it took all my strength to not look back at him. I was really confused about what Loki had told me and how Gabriel behaved. What did all that mean?

Sam and Dean were waiting at the car and I was about to join them when Gabriel held me back. "Can I talk to you for a second?" He asked, with unusual seriousness. "Uh- sure." I nodded, not knowing how I should act in front of him. He pulled me out of Sam and Dean's sight and took a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry I left you. That I didn't tell you I'm alive. But I was- I was just trying to protect you! If Lucifer found out about my feelings for you, he would've hurt you to control me and I couldn't let that happen." He sighed and looked at me regretfully. "I thought of you all the time. Even with the porn stars when I did- uh.. things.. with them." I cringed, too much information. Then I sighed and looked up to him, about to say something but he was faster: "I love you Angel and I never meant to hurt you. You have to believe me!" He pleaded while I was caught off guard by his sincerity. "I- I believe you." I finally said and I could see him relax. "And I love you too," I added and realized it was true as soon as I said it. I could see Gabriel's eyes light up with joy and he leaned forward to kiss me when we heard someone clearing his throat in a very angry way. Simultaneously we turned around and saw Dean looking at us with his arms folded across his chest: "Are we ready to go?" He asked and then looked at Gabriel: "Are you coming?" Gabriel straightened himself and nodded: "Yes, I'm gonna help you safe the world. And your mum and Jack." "Great. Let's go." Was his only reaction. Then he took my arm and pulled me gently away from Gabriel and towards the car. The archangel just rolled his eyes at Dean and then followed us.

Nearly immediately after Gabriel sat down next to me I fell asleep against his shoulder, it was an exhausting day. When Dean noticed how close we were, he deliberately made a swerve, that caused me to glide away from Gabriel and now leaned against the window, still sleeping tho. "Dean-" Sam sighed and shook his head. Gabriel glared at Dean in annoyance but decided to let it go. Dean just grinned and drove steadily towards the bunker.

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